Legends in the Making
by Arille
Summary: AU. Overpowered team. A recent event causes a threat to Naruto's safety to rise. Sandaime Hokage has a plan to ensure his safety while training him to become one of their best. NaruSaku.
1. The Merge

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, Sakura would already be having his babies.

* * *

October 10th is a day with many meanings to the village of Konoha and it's occupants.

Possibly the most wide-spread meaning is that October 10th is a day of celebration. Why do they celebrate? October 10th was the day that the Yondaime Hokage of Konoha defeated the legendary nine-tailed fox, the Kyuubi. To those that were present at the time of the attack know that Kyuubi was defeated by sealing away the demon in the body of a newborn baby, the Yondaime sacrificing his life to do so. To the newer generations the story goes that the Yondaime valiantly fought and slayed the demon, becoming mortally wounded in the process.

One of Konoha's largest festivals is held on this day. This festival is held in honor of the Yondaime's sacrifice, and to celebrate the defeat of the Kyuubi. As such, decorations such as pictures and banners depicting either the Yondaime or a dead Kyuubi, are strewn throughout the village. A grand stage is set up in the middle of Konoha's largest park, where dramatic reenactments of the battle will be shown. At the festivals closing, bright fireworks can be seen lighting the night sky with all different colors while the current Hokage of Konoha will give an annual speech to his citizens.

Another, perhaps less popular, meaning of October 10th is that it is a day to mourn. Many people lost loved ones during that attack. While awaiting the Yondaime Hokage, many Shinobi sacrificed themselves in order to hold back the beast from making it's way to the village where their loved ones were located. These Shinobi were Mothers and Fathers, Sons and Daughters, all protecting what they cared about most: Their village and it's occupants. And as such they became heroes, their deeds never to be forgotten.

To one blond haired, blue eyed boy, October 10th held the most meaning. That day, 12 years ago, was the day he first entered this world, born during the Kyuubi's attack. Even though it was his date of his birth, he did not celebrate. Why wouldn't a 12 year old celebrate his own birthday? That would be because of the other meanings October 10th had to him.

His birth was not the only thing to happen to him that day. On that day he lost both his mother and his father, of whom he has never known. He does not even know their names, as the records of his birth were lost during the attack. This has left him alone in the world, having no family left to help take care of him, comfort him, or just plain be with him.

But perhaps the biggest reason for Uzumaki Naruto to not celebrate this day, was that on this day he was plagued with a curse. The Yondaime Hokage of Konoha, in order to successfully seal away the Kyuubi, needed a newborn baby in which to seal the demon into. Uzumaki Naruto, being one of the few babies born on that day, was chosen to be the living container of the Kyuubi.

The Yondaime knew of the burden he was cursing the child with, but that did not stop him, as that was the only way to put an end to the demon's rampage. Though the Yondaime was cursing him, he wanted the boy to be able to live a normal life. So as his final wish, he asked for the boy to be treated as the hero he was.

Unfortunately his wish was not honored by the majority of the populace. Many people did not see the innocent boy he was when they encountered him. Instead, in his place, they saw the Kyuubi who was responsible for the death of their loved ones. This quick judgment from most of the villagers would lead to Naruto being ostracized from society, doomed to live a very lonely existence. In order to help the boy, the recently reinstated Sandaime Hokage of Konoha passed a law stating that any knowledge of the sealing shall not be spread to those who do not know about it, nor shall any harm come to Naruto because of his tenant. This law was backed up with a very harsh punishment that no villager wanted upon them.

Not all villagers hated the boy, though. There were some that respected the Yondaime's wish and saw Naruto as the hero he was. The majority of the people with this line of thinking were Shinobi of which were completely loyal to the Yondaime. These Shinobi did everything in their power to help Naruto out, be it giving him gifts for his birthday, or treating him to his favorite food, Ramen. Naruto had also been able to make a couple of friends his age. When he joined the academy, he met many children his age, however only one truly became a friend. The others were more acquaintances than anything.

October 10th, though, was a day that Naruto learned to fear. While normally the villagers only glared at him spitefully, things were different on that cursed day. With the loss of their loved ones as the focus on their minds, some villagers would become filled with grief. Eventually their grief would give away to hate and rage, where they would do anything to gain vengeance. Even though rare, the attacks still came. For this reason, Naruto usually stayed in hiding, far away from the events going on at the festival.

When the Sandaime Hokage, the first person to ever care about Naruto, found out about these attacks, he quickly put a stop to them, threatening a death sentence to any who dare harm the boy. The Hokage was a wise man, though, and he knew there may still be some that would pay the price of death even if only for a chance to gain their revenge on the 'demon boy'. For this reason, he made it a habit to spend the day of October 10th with the blond haired boy, whom he treated as his own grandson. None would dare attack him while he was with the Hokage, who was the most powerful Shinobi in the village.

Today happened to be October 10th.

Currently the Hokage could be found wandering the streets of the village, Naruto by his side animatedly explaining his recent prank on one Uchiha Sasuke.

"...so you see Ojisan, I made it so whenever Sasuke opened his bento, it would explode with a loud 'boom' and a bunch of banners with 'I love my fangirls' written on them would pop out and fly all over the class. The fangirls of his went nuts when they saw the banners. They all thought Sasuke wrote it! All of the boys, though, we didn't stop laughing until Iruka-sensei finally got mad and yelled at us!"

The Sandaime chuckled, and look toward the blond haired boy, "I take it Sasuke was not happy?"

"Duh. I mean cmon, this is is Sasuke we're talking about!" the boy explained while leading the Hokage towards his favorite ramen stand, "I don't think he even knows what the word 'happy' means."

"Well, you do understand that he hasn't had a very happy life, don't you?" questioned the Sandaime, speaking in his usual manner reserved for when he is serious.

"And I have? You'll never see me acting all emo like him though! I don't think I could possibly do it, even if I tried my best."

The Sandaime chuckled sadly, "Point taken."

As they turned the corner, a very familiar stand came into view, which caused the boy to burst into action, running full speed towards his destination. The Sandaime followed slowly, a smile upon his face.

"One miso, old man!"

The Hokage arrived a moment later, "I'll also take a miso, if you would."

"Coming right up!" exclaimed the old chef, immediately going over to his kitchen to begin their orders.

A tall brunette woman came walking out from the back room and looked towards her customers and smiled. She always loved when her favorite customer was around. "Good evening, Hokage-sama, Naruto-kun."

"Heya Ayame-nee-chan! Did I tell you what I did to Sasuke yesterday during class?!" questioned Naruto, obviously proud of what he had done.

"Nope, I don't think so. Why don't you tell me now? You have a few minutes before your ramen is done." Replied Ayame as she leaned on the counter to listen to her favorite customer.

Immediately upon hearing her response, Naruto launched into a brief explanation of the prank, which caused the lady chef to laugh slightly, "You're always so mean to him, Naruto-kun!"

Before he even had a chance to respond, a large bowl of miso ramen was placed in front of him and the Hokage, which quelled any response he had. Quickly he picked up the nearest pair of chopsticks and broke them apart, digging into the ramen in front of him. The boy could be seen eating messily, with no respect for manners, which made the Sandaime sigh. He had been trying to teach Naruto better manners for a long while now, and he had thought he was getting through to the boy. Obviously it wasn't working.

The Sandaime broke apart his chopsticks and began to eat from his bowl in a dignified manner, which was expected of a man of his status. He looked over at Naruto just in time to see him finish his first bowl, and as he predicted, he immediately ordered another large bowl of ramen. '_Some things never change_,' the Hokage mused to himself.

When the Hokage finished his second bowl, Naruto was just finishing his tenth. Fortunately for the Sandaime, Naruto was slowing down, a sure sign that he would be finished soon. He sat quietly and watched Naruto eat his ramen, thinking if it would be appropriate to teach Naruto another jutsu for his birthday. Last year, after learning from Narutos file that he was unable to perform the standard Bunshin, the Hokage personally looked into it, trying to find the possible reason. After determining that Naruto had too much chakra, thus lacked the control to make a simple bunshin, he taught Naruto the Kage Bunshin. Naruto took to the jutsu surprisingly well, learning it in a few short hours.

When Naruto placed down his final bowl, the Hokage decided that it would not be wise to teach Naruto too many jutsus until he became a ninja, as he would rather Naruto focus on learning what they were required to at the academy first.

"Are you all finished there, Naruto?" questioned the Sandaime, actually curious as it was hard to tell when it came to Narutos eating habits.

The boy in question nodded, "Yeah! Man was that good! Thanks Ojisan!"

The Hokage smiled warmly, "You're welcome Naruto. I still have some time before I have to make my speech, so what would you like to do now?"

They sat in silence for a few moments while Naruto pondered his options, and finally came to a decision. "Well, I've been wanting to go look at the new stuff they have at the weapons shop, but I haven't had any time lately. Can we go there now?"

The Hokage nodded while pulling out his wallet and placed enough money on the counter to cover the bill and a hefty tip for the chefs, "If thats what you want to do, we can."

They both got up and thanked the old chef and his daughter before leaving the stand, making their way towards the weapons shop across town. After turning the corner, the Hokage noticed that his blond follower was not next to him and looked back where they came from and saw Naruto just standing there.

"Are you coming, Naruto?" he questioned. Upon receiving no response, not even a hint that the boy heard him, he walked back towards Naruto and noticed he had a far away look on his face. "Naruto, are you ok?" he asked while waving his hand in front of Naruto's face, hoping to catch his attention. When nothing worked, he began to get worried.

A few minutes passed, with both of them standing there in silence. Naruto not even moving an inch, while the Sandaime watched him carefully, trying his best to figure out what was going on with Naruto. The only theory he could come up with is that Naruto was currently speaking with the fox, as when that happened, Naruto usually gained that same look on his face.

All of a sudden Naruto dropped to his knees, clutching his stomach. He gasped out in what seemed like pain, his facial features scrunched up as if trying his hardest not to scream.

"Are you okay Naruto?"

The boy shook his head, "S-somethings wrong Ojisan. I-It hurts!"

"Can you tell me what hurts?" questioned a now very worried Sandaime, already beginning to guess what's wrong, and hoping it wasn't true.

"My s-stomach. It feels like the skin is burn-ing!" he screamed out the last part, as a very sharp pain raced across his stomach in the shape of the seal, adding to the already excruciating burning pain.

Before the Hokage was able to ask anything else, the boy spoke up again, "T-the s-seal! S-somethings wrong!"

The near panicking Hokage immediately ordered him to lay back and release his stomach so he could take a look at the seal. He was praying with all he had that the seal was not breaking, as the possible destruction the fox could cause in the center of the village where they were currently located was horrifying.

He unzipped the jumpsuit jacket quickly and pulled up Narutos black shirt exposing the seal, glowing brightly. The Sandaime stared at it, studying it in detail. The normally black seal was now glowing two different colors. The outer part of the seal was glowing a bright blue, while the inner swirl was glowing a bright red. He watched for a few moments as the colors slowly began to intertwine with each other, coloring the spots where they mixed a purple-pink color. Thinking back to everything he knew about the seal, he could only come to one conclusion and sighed in relief.

_'Thank kami the seal is not breaking. I wasn't expecting this for another few years however...'_ He broke out of his thoughts at hearing Naruto scream in agony again, and decided he needed to do something for him and quick. He rose up and let out a loud whistle, which he knew would summon his nearby personal ANBU guard.

Within a few short moments four black robed ANBU jumped in front of the Hokage. "Yes, Hokage-sama?"

"Bear, I need you to summon Hyuuga Hiashi for me. Tell him it's very important and to meet me at the hospital. Go now." he commanded, and watched as the bear masked ANBU nodded and jumped off to the nearest building heading towards the Hyuuga district.

"One of you pick up Naruto," he said pointing to the whimpering boy laying on the ground, "and get him to the hospital. Tell the doctors to give him something for the pain, but do nothing else until I arrive. I need to confirm something first. Do not let him out of your sight. The other two will follow me." he ordered, and watched as the cat masked ANBU picked Naruto up gently and bounded towards the hospital at full speed.

He looked at his other two ANBU and nodded before they too jumped to the roofs heading towards the Hokage's tower situated on the other side of town. He needed to have a look at the forbidden scroll.

* * *

Nearly an hour later the Sandaime arrived at the hospital entrance with his two ANBU guards in tow. Walking through the doors he spotted Hyuuga Hiashi waiting patiently for his arrival, "Good to see you, Hiashi. Thank you for coming."

The Hyuuga looked over towards the familiar voice, "Ahh, Hokage-sama, good to see you as well. Did you need me for something?"

The Hokage nodded but did not explain anything, instead he walked towards the nurse's desk, "Which room is Uzumaki Naruto in?" The nurse looked at the list for a moment before responding, "He's in room 213, Hokage-sama. The doctor should still be with him as well."

The Hokage nodded his thanks before signaling Hiashi and his ANBU guards to follow. "We have a potential problem concerning Naruto, Hiashi."

"Does it have anything to do with the seal?" When the Hokage nodded his reply, he moved on to his next question, "Is it in danger of breaking?"

"Thankfully, no. Quite the opposite actually. After witnessing what was happening to the seal I went back to the tower and reread the seal details on the forbidden scroll. According to everything known about the seal, it is completing what it was designed to do."

"So soon? I was not expecting that for a few more years at least."

As they ascended the stairs the Hokage continued, "I thought that as well. I don't know whats causing it to merge early, but I am not concerned. This is what the seal was designed for, and once it's complete, the Kyuubi will be gone forever. I am worried about the health of the boy, however."

As they reached the top of the stairs, Hiashi opened the door for the Hokage and asked another question that was on his mind, "If it has to do with the seal, why did you summon me? You know I have no knowledge of seals or their workings."

"I know. You're here to improve our chances of keeping Naruto alive." he finished as he neared the room. As they entered they were greeted by a now peacefully sleeping Naruto, the cat and bear masked ANBU, and a concerned looking doctor. While most doctors did not care much for Naruto's health, there were a few that did, and they usually took it upon themselves to take care of the boy during his hospital visits.

When the doctor noticed the arrival of the group he stood up and gave a polite bow towards the Hokage, "Hokage-sama. Do you know what is wrong with the boy? You had requested that we not do anything but treat him for the pain."

The Hokage looked at the doctor for a moment before responding, "Yes, I do. Do not worry, he will be fine if we keep a close eye on him, I believe. How long will the pain reliever you gave him last?"

The doctor thought for a moment, "With the dose I gave him, and with his body weight, I would expect 3 to 4 hours."

The Hokage nodded at the doctor, "Thank you for the information. I may have some more questions for you, will you be available for the night?"

"I'm on duty until 2 A.M. tonight, Hokage-sama. If you need me, just ask the nurse at the desk on this floor and she will get a hold of me."

"Very well, thank you. If I need you I will call for you." The Hokage responded, silently hinting to the doctor that he was not needed right now.

The doctor took the hint and excused himself from the room leaving Hiashi and 4 ANBU with the Hokage. The Sandaime made his way towards Naruto and pulled up his shirt to observe the seal. After studying it for a moment, he noticed that there was quite a bit more purple covering the seal than there was when he last saw it. Taking that as a sign that the merge is going well, he walked over to the seat nearest the window. He opened up the window fully and sat down in the chair beside it and pulled out his pipe and bag of tobacco. Quickly packing the bowl full, he used a small katon jutsu to light it and took a puff to calm his nerves.

On the outside it would seem the Sandaime is very calm about the situation, but on the inside he is worrying. He is worrying for the safety and health of Naruto. Worrying about the village's reaction if they were to find out, and worrying about Naruto's future, as he does not know what effects may happen to Naruto due to this merge. He could only pray that it was nothing severe or bad.

Inhaling another puff of smoke from his pipe, he motioned for Hiashi to take a seat beside him. When Hiashi sat down, he looked toward the Hokage, as if expecting an explanation. He didn't quite understand what was going on, and if he was to be of any help, then he would need to know everything.

The Hokage thought for a brief moment before speaking up, "I will explain things briefly to you, as I can tell that you still do not understand what is going on." He watched as Hiashi paid close attention to him before continuing, "Right now, the seal is merging. What that means, is that Kyuubi's chakra is now merging with Naruto, and will become Naruto's permanently. When it is completed, Naruto will have what I will describe as inhuman chakra reserves. When it completes, the Kyuubi will cease to exist, never to bother us again. That is what the Yondaime intended to do with the seal from the beginning."

He took another puff from his pipe, giving Hiashi a moment to ask any questions. When he heard nothing but silence, he continued, "What effects this will have on Naruto I am not sure. I pray to the Kami that it is nothing harmful, or that if there are any physical changes, they are not severe." The Hokage chuckled sadly, "I would hope he does not grow a tail, or fox ears, as that could be most problematic for him."

"The only effect I am sure of is, as I said earlier, Naruto will be given a gift. This gift will be in the form of chakra. I assume, due to the sheer size and power that made up the Kyuubi, that he has an enormous amount of chakra. I could not possibly fathom how much Naruto will posses after this is over. I am sure you have guessed by now why I requested you to come."

Hiashi nodded and spoke his thoughts, "You need me to observe his chakra coils. The Kyuubi was indeed massive, enormous beyond belief. That much chakra in this small a boy, it quite possibly could harm, even kill him."

The Hokage nodded his answer and continued for him, "I need you to alert me of any signs of stress in the coils. Even the slightest amount. I know you are fully aware of how the chakra coils work, but I will explain my belief anyways. The chakra coils are known to adapt. Studies from many generations report that chakra coils adapt faster than anything else on this world. My belief, and hope, is that if we can relieve the stress and give the coils time to adapt and strengthen to hold this massive amount of chakra, that we can save his life."

Haishi looked thoughtful for a moment, "What do you have planned if there indeed is stressing?"

"I am glad you asked," replied the Hokage, taking the final puff of smoke from his pipe. "I believe we would only need for him to spend all of the chakra he has, exhausting himself. That will buy the coils time. He will rest to regenerate the chakra again, and we will pay close attention to the coils. If there are more signs, we repeat the process until his coils are strong enough to hold all of the chakra."

Hiashi tore his gaze from the Hokage and studied the boy for a moment before asking a question, "He is just an academy student, though. The jutsus taught from the academy will never even begin to touch his reserves if they will be as large as we believe they will be. How would he be able to drain the chakra fast enough to relieve the stress?"

"This makes me glad I taught him a jutsu last year for his birthday present. I taught him Kage Bunshin, and as you know well, Kage Bunshin takes an enormous amount of chakra to use. I am confident that it will work. Naruto is quite proficient with that jutsu, so he will be able to keep using it fast enough to drain his chakra before it has a chance to regenerate." the Hokage answered before getting up and moving to the boy to study the seal once more. Upon noticing that about 1/4 of the seal is a light purple color, he sat back down and explained his observations to Hiashi regarding the seal.

As he finished explaining the seal findings and how the coloring works, the ANBU guard wearing a boar mask spoke up, "Hokage-sama, I apologize for interrupting, but it is almost time for your speech." he said while pointing to the clock hanging on the wall.

The Hokage looked at the clock before silently grumbling to himself, "Indeed it is, I would have forgotten about it due to this situation. Thank you for reminding me."

The boar masked ANBU nodded and sat back down while the Hokage explained one last order to Hiashi, "I need you to stay here with the boy and watch his chakra coils closely. I will be leaving you one guard. If anything happens, send him to retrieve the doctor. Have the doctor wake Naruto up and order him to create enough Kage Bunshins to fill this room and then immediately dismiss them. Knowing Naruto he will have a ton of questions. Tell him that I will explain it to him when I come back. Any questions for me before I leave?"

"None, Hokage-sama, I understand what I need to do. I promise that if there is anything I can do, I will do it to keep him healthy."

The Hokage nodded before walking to the door. Three of his guards stood up as he opened the door, but he paused for a moment. "Hiashi, do not hesitate to summon me if anything happens that you are not able to deal with or understand. Even if I am in the middle of my speech, I will come. Naruto's health is more important than a few words."

"I understand, Hokage-sama."

As he said that, the Hokage and three guards left the room, making their way towards the grand stage where the Hokage will make a speech honoring the deceased Yondaime and give his annual report of the villages status.

As soon as the Hokage left the room, Hiashi activated his Byakugan and watched Naruto's chakra coils closely, observing every detail.

* * *

The Hokage could be seen standing in the center of a very large stage, animatedly giving off a very well thought out speech to the citizens of Konoha. It was well thought out, yet repetitive and boring, some would admit. This is mainly because major changes do not seem to happen often, so the Hokage had only minor, yet boring details to explain to the crowd. Even though he knew he was boring the majority of them, he continued on, as it was his duty as Sandaime Hokage of Konoha, to keep his citizens up to date on the village workings.

"...and as you can see, Konoha is-"

"Hokage-sama!" interrupted a breathless ANBU, who used all of his strength to get there fast. The Sandaime recognized him as the same one he left with Hiashi and Naruto in the hospital. Before the Hokage could say anything, the ANBU did a quick shunshin to right beside him and spoke in a voice only the Hokage could hear, as he thought this should be kept secret.

"Hokage-sama, something is happening to the seal. Hiashi informed me that the seal was over 3/4 of the way to being colored completely purple, but something happened. The seal started to flash between red, blue and purple, and was continuing to do so as I left the ro-"

He didn't get a chance to finish, as a powerful shock wave forced everyone, even the Hokage, to their knees. The Sandaime began to panic, he knew this feeling. This was the chakra of the Kyuubi, but it was different. It didn't seem as malicious as the Kyuubi's did 12 years ago. He looked toward the hospital and noticed that the building wasn't damaged, so he immediately assumed the shock wave was caused due an incredible burst of chakra. He knew the source, and needed to get there fast, but he also needed to stop any panic from starting.

He quickly stood up and looked towards the crowd of people who were making their way back to their feet. It became easier once the feeling of the chakra went away. Just as the Hokage had feared, as soon as they were standing again they began yelling about the demon and fearing for their safety. He was about to try to calm their panic down, but another shock wave hit them. This shock wave was considerably weaker, though, and the chakra felt almost...pure, is the only way he could describe it.

He needed to find out what was going on, he did not have time to calm a crowd of rowdy and panicking civilians. He looked around for a moment before spotting his 2 personal advisors, he quickly waved them over and they came quickly. He spoke up in a soft voice for only them to hear.

"I know what is causing this. It's Uzumaki Naruto. Earlier I submitted him to the hospital after witnessing the seal begin it's merging. I do not know what happened, I can only pray that he's still safe and the merging is complete. I need you to try to calm the villagers down while I investigate this. I will send word immediately of any findings, can you do this for me?"

"I hope nothing bad has happened. Hurry back with any information, we'll do our best to calm them." replied Homura.

The Hokage nodded before taking off towards the hospital with his ANBU team in tow. He could vaguely hear Homura and Koharu speaking to the crowd to try to calm them. He could only hope for the best at this point.

* * *

As the Sandaime arrived at the hospital, he burst through the front doors and witnessed a panicked hospital staff running around the hospital to calm and take care of their patients. Not sparing the situation a second glance, he dashed off towards the room where he left Naruto.

As he finished climbing the stairs and entered the hallway containing the room, he was greeted by a sight he did not expect to see. Covering almost the entire hallway, he estimated about 400, was Naruto's Kage Bunshins. He watched as they disappeared and a fog consisting of smoke filled the area. He felt his way through the smoke and made it to Narutos room and immediately demanded a report of the situation.

"I assume you felt it too, Hokage-sama?" questioned a slightly concerned Hiashi.

"Yes, I did. It was powerful, knocking everyone in the crowd to their knees. I can only hope that Homura and Koharu will be able to calm the villagers down, if not than I fear we will have a problem on our hands."

As the smoke cleared, he looked at Naruto who seemed healthy as can be, and watched as he grinned and continued creating Kage Bunshins, except for this time he did not create any inside of the room so they could speak and see at the same time.

"Naruto, let me have a look at the seal." commanded the Sandaime, authority clearly present in his voice.

Naruto dismissed his last set of kage bunshins and pulled up his shirt so the Sandaime could have a look. What he found surprised him. There was no seal. Figuring it must have faded away, he put his palm on his stomach and concentrated chakra to his hand to force the seal to appear. When nothing happened after a few moments he grew concerned.

"What happened to the seal, why is it not there?"

It was Naruto who answered, "I don't know. One minute I'm passed out talking with the bastard fox, and the next minute I'm awake being ordered by Hiashi-san to create Kage Bunshins until I run out of chakra."

"You were talking to the fox? What did it have to say?"

"That's what was weird. He kept saying goodbye. What was even weirder, though, was that he said that he respected me, even if a little bit, and that I should be honored. I don't get it." responded Naruto, who was scratching the back of his head as he was speaking.

The Hokage visibly relaxed and removed his hand from Narutos stomach. "I need you to tell me everything the fox said."

"Excuse me, Hokage-sama," Haishi interrupted and turned towards the blue eyed boy, "Naruto, you need to keep creating clones, you still have above 75 percent of your chakra reserves to get rid of. If you don't get rid of it, it could damage your chakra coils and we don't want that." Hiashi commanded, and Naruto immediately complied creating 500 Kage Bunshins at a time, but kept them outside of the room.

"How much chakra does he have, Hiashi? When I first walked up the stairs I saw at least 400 Kage Bunshins covering almost every inch of the hallway. And how long has he been creating them?" questioned the Sandaime, a bit of awe apparent in the tone of his voice.

The Hokage noticed that Naruto stopped creating shadow clones and ordered him to continue and not stop until he ran very low on chakra. Naruto reluctantly nodded. He was getting bored, and knew this was going to take awhile, as he could feel how much chakra he had and he still wasn't able to completely believe it.

"He has been creating Kage Bunshins since the second shock wave, Hokage-sama. It was after that, when I assume the merge completed, that his coils started stressing and I had the doctor wake him quickly. He's been creating them for quite some time now, I'd estimate 7 minutes, give or take." Hiashi explained.

The Sandaime took a seat, and rubbed the bridge of his nose for a moment, "How many clones have you been creating at one time, Naruto?"

"A lot. I think I've been doing 500 at a time, I'm not sure about how many I was doing earlier, as I was still sleepy and not counting, but that's how many I'm doing now."

"And how much chakra do you have left now, can you tell?"

Naruto stopped creating clones for a moment and focused on his reserves, "Um, I'd say a little over half left. It's hard to tell, I'm not used to this much chakra." explained Naruto, oddly serious for once.

"That's..." the Sandaime was at a loss for words. Hes never heard of a human containing so much chakra, "...incredible. Just from a quick estimation from what each of you told me, I'd guess so far you've created somewhere in the range of 30,000 clones, and you still say you have more than half of your chakra. It's just..." the Sandaime trailed off, not able to find a word to speak his level of amazement.

Naruto kept creating clones, as he has not heard them tell him to stop yet, "Hey Ojisan, how many clones can you make total?"

"That's what's incredible Naruto. In my prime fully rested I was only able to make around 10,000 total." answered the Hokage seriously.

"I guess that just means that I will be Hokage someday, seeing as how I beat you in something!" joked Naruto, although he was completely serious at the part about becoming Hokage.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, the only sounds that could be heard was the sounds of clones popping in and out of existence and Naruto mumbling 'Kage Bunshin no jutsu' every time he performed the jutsu. The Sandaime was busy thinking about the immediate future concerning Naruto and the village. No doubt to him that there is going to be a lot of headaches and problems for Naruto after that wave of chakra. He could only hope that Homura and Koharu had any success at calming the villagers.

Then it hit him. He had promised to send word to them. He looked over to one of the well rested ANBU in the room, "Cat, I need you to find Homura and Koharu, they are most likely still located at the stage in the park. Inform them that there is nothing to worry about, and that I will explain the details with them later." He watched as cat stood up, nodded, and disappeared in a poof of smoke.

The Sandaime looked over towards Hiashi and noticed that he was sitting still as can be, the only thing moving were his eyes, which were focused entirely on Naruto. "How are his coils faring, Hiashi?"

Hiashi took another once over of the coils before responding, "They are in perfect condition. I can see them visibly strengthening. They are also stretching and becoming longer, no doubt to help hold the chakra. I would not be surprised if Naruto were to experience some physical changes to hold it as well."

"What do you mean physical changes? Am I going to look different because of this?!" questioned Naruto, his voice nearly loud enough to burst the ear drums of the room occupants. They both took a moment to recover before Hiashi answered.

"I don't think anything bad will happen, Naruto. I believe if anything were to happen that you could count as a negative change, it would have happened already. From what I can see from your chakra coils, I believe I could expect you to at the very least grow taller. How tall, I do not know."

"Taller? Cool! I hate being smaller than everyone in my class. They always pick on me about it!"

Both men chuckled for a moment before the Sandaime realized something, "Naruto, I asked you earlier to explain to me everything you talked about with the fox but we were interrupted. Can you tell me now?"

"Yeah, one sec. I'm starting to get low on chakra, so let me finish these Kage Bunshins." replied Naruto, before he continued creating kage bunshins. He kept at it for a couple more minutes before he sat down on the bed, completely exhausted.

"Okay, I think that's all of my chakra. I'm tired as hell now."

"Indeed it is, Naruto. Your chakra is almost gone, but I believe even now you still have enough to do another set of Kage Bunshins, but that would risk chakra exhaustion, and we do not want that. Its a good thing you already can tell when to stop." Hiashi replied in all seriousness, examining Narutos chakra coils a moment longer before giving his Byakugan a break.

"Okay Ojisan, I'll give you a summary. When I first was knocked out from what the doctor gave me, I was pulled into my mind where the fox was. When I approached he said he needed to speak with me for a moment. He started rambling on about how his time is at an end and how he doesn't regret being sealed. Then he told me something weird, which I didn't expect. He told me he respected me a little bit."

He noticed both men listening intently so he took a breath and continued, "He said that even for a human I deserved a bit of respect from him. He then told me what was happening, that his chakra is leaking through the seal and being absorbed by me and will become mine permanently. He said that when it was done, he would cease to exist, which I was happy about. I always did hate the bastard fox."

"But what was even weirder than him saying he respected me, was that he gave me a gift!"

"A gift? What did he give you?" questioned a very curious, yet skeptical, Sandaime.

"He taught me a jutsu! Can you believe it?!" exclaimed an excited Naruto, obviously happy that he learned a new jutsu, even if it was from a vicious demon.

"Did he explain anything about the jutsu, like what it does?"

Naruto nodded and continued, "He told me it's a summoning jutsu. At first I didn't trust him, thinking he was having me summon him, but he kept insisting that it wouldn't, as he'd be dead. After a while I believed him so he taught it to me. I did it successfully in my mind, and when I did it, a scroll appeared in a puff of smoke. I don't know whats written on the scroll though, as I couldn't open it. He told me it had a blood seal on it, do you know what that is?"

The Sandaime nodded, "Yes, I do. I will tell you later. Did he say anything else?"

"Yeah, so he kept talking about what's inside the scroll or somethin', I wasn't paying much attention to him at the time, the only thing I caught was that it was very valuable, and that he used it when he was shape shifted into a human form."

"Wait, he could shape shift into a human?" questioned Hiashi, who was slightly disbelieving.

"I guess, it's not like he showed me or anything. Anyways, he told me to take care of the item, and that I should pass it down. He said inside the scroll it explains how to use the item as well as everything I'll need to know about it. I still don't know whats apparently inside of the scroll, though. Think I can summon it now and we can find out?"

The Sandaime shook his head, "In the future we will, I promise you that. Do not perform that jutsu without my permission, alright?"

Naruto hesitated for a moment before nodding, then he continued his story, "That's pretty much everything, except for he kept saying goodbye, almost as if he was leaving someone he cared about behind, it was kinda disturbing to tell the truth. I didn't know the bastard cared about me. Anyways, right before I woke up, I noticed the cage was shrinking and what was left of the fox looked like it was disappearing into thin air. I woke up before I could see anything finish, so I don't know what happened."

The Sandaime nodded and thought for a moment, "I am going to need to have the doctors run a bunch of tests on you, as I want to make sure you are healthy. I am especially concerned with your chakra coils. I am afraid if we do not keep a close watch on them, we might miss a sign of stressing and you could die."

"I will keep watch for tonight, Hokage-sama. I have no problem with it, and I am not tired in the least. I will then get someone to replace me if needed in the morning if you would like."

"Are you sure, Hiashi?" he watched as he got a nod for a response, "Very well then, you will stay in here with Naruto and keep a close eye on his coils. As before, any signs of stressing wake him up to create Kage Bunshins until he's out of chakra again. Hopefully his coils will adapt quickly and without problems."

"Naruto, one more thing before I leave for the night to allow you to rest. I will be sending a Yamanaka to do a mind walk through your mind. I am going to have him check it thoroughly, so do not be afraid. I just need to make sure that Kyuubi is indeed gone."

"Sure thing, Ojisan." he replied right before a loud yawn took over.

"Get some sleep, Naruto. I will check back in the morning to see how you are doing. Before I leave, I need to speak with you for a moment outside, Hiashi."

With that he left Naruto in the room to get comfortable and get some sleep, while he and Hiashi went outside the room and closed the door as to not disturb Naruto with their talk.

"Hiashi, you were very well aware of that shock wave from earlier. It has got the villagers in a panic, and I fear some may come after Naruto and attempt to harm him, as they may believe the Kyuubi is escaping. I need you to keep alert for any intruders while watching his coils, can you do that?"

"Yes, I can do that no problem. How do you plan on handling the panic and explaining that the Kyuubi is no longer in this world, if one of the Yamanakas confirm it?"

"I am not sure yet, Hiashi. I will probably need your support to do so. I might even need to gather all of the clan heads. It definitely will not be easy to calm the villagers, but I am sure I will be able to do it before it gets too bad. As a precaution I will be sending a squad of my more trusted ANBU to help you protect the boy from any harm. They will replace my squad that is currently in the room."

"That will definitely help, thank you Hokage-sama."

"Not a problem, his safety is one of my main concerns. Anyways, I am tired and I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a very long day, so I must get some rest. I shall see you in the morning, Hiashi."

"Goodnight, Hokage-sama."

And with that, both men parted ways, one heading towards his home to get some sleep, the other making himself comfortable in the hospital room, keeping a very strict watch on the details of the blond boy's chakra coils.

* * *

AN: This is my first attempt at ever writing a story. I'm hoping that it is enjoyable to all of you that read it.

Since it's my first story, I'd love it if you could take a moment to give me a review. I don't wish for things to say "It was awesome, write more!" I wish for reviews that help me. I'll take any constructive criticism, harsh or not. I can't get better if I don't know what I'm doing wrong. The grammar is my main concern, as I have been told that I'm not that great at it.

There will be many inconstancies with the canon storyline, as you may have been already able to tell. That list will only grow, I'm sure of it.

While this story will follow through the normal canon storyline arcs, I plan on doing it quite differently. There is too many stories out there already that follow them, some even daring to only change a word or two from canon. I can assure you now, that I will change plenty more than that, if I even have them follow the arc at all.

Also, please no complaints on the pairing.


	2. Council Meeting

Disclaimer: Of course I don't own Naruto. I live in a completely different country than the author, first off.

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The day after the successful merging was one of the busiest days of the Sandaime's career as Hokage.

His day started at the break of dawn. There was barely enough time for him to eat a healthy breakfast and drink his usual morning cup of coffee, as the moment he finished there was a knock at the door of his house. His assistant was there, explaining to him the day's schedule. It consisted of multiple meetings, all of which he assumed had to do with one topic: the chakra blast and Uzumaki Naruto. Before his meetings, though, he had enough time for a quick hospital visit to check on the status of the child.

When he arrived, he was greeted by a not so unexpected surprise. Naruto had seemingly grown overnight, and when the doctors measured him, they reported that he grew 7 inches, putting him at above average for his age. This of course was very unusual, and caused many headaches for Naruto, as people were always curious, and you don't normally see someone grow over half a foot in a days time.

Before he had left the hospital that morning, he summoned Yamanaka Inoichi, a person he could rely on and trust. When Inoichi arrived minutes later, the Sandaime ordered a very thorough examination of the boys mind. Inoichi was asked to check for any, even minor, signs of the Kyuubi's presence, as they needed to be absolutely sure that the Kyuubi was indeed gone. The Sandaime had left the Yamanaka to do his business, and asked for a report on Naruto's chakra coils from Hyuuga Hiashi. Upon hearing that his coils were adapting successfully, he was elated. That could only mean that Naruto was now out of danger. He relieved Hiashi of his duty to get some much needed rest before summoning another high ranking Hyuuga member to observe the coils.

With his business complete at the hospital, he rushed towards his first meeting of the day, one he was almost late for. Fortunately, the people he was to meet during that meeting were very understanding, as they too cared about Naruto's health. They were Homura and Koharu, who had requested a meeting between them and the Hokage in his office. They discussed many things, mostly concerning the panic that had surfaced. It seemed that after many explanations and reassurances from the two advisors, the crowd calmed down some. To help matters, when no more shock waves happened, and there was no sight of the gigantic Kyuubi, the crowd calmed even more.

During that meeting, the Hokage explained every detail of what he had witnessed to his advisors, and explained he was awaiting a report from Inoichi on the status of the Kyuubi. This meeting had went on for a few hours, and right before it was ended, the Hokage's assistant and Yamanaka Inoichi were admitted to the room, where Inoichi testified that there was absolutely no sign of the Kyuubi in the boys mind.

With his confirmation, the Hokage and his advisors set out to writing a message to the public, explaining the situation in as much detail as they could without breaking the Sandaime's law concerning Naruto. They believed with the way they had worded the message, that those who knew of the sealing would be able to figure it out, and those that didn't would not become suspicious. After releasing the message to the public, the Hokage was summoned to another important meeting.

This meeting was with the Shinobi council, as he defined them. This council consisted of the clan heads of all of the major clans, his two personal advisors, Danzo the war hawk, and a few other very high ranking and trusted Shinobi. This meeting also was concerned completely with the event from the night before and the condition of the seal. The Hokage had no problem explaining in full detail to this council, as he knew he could trust almost every person in attendance here. The only one he did not trust was Danzo, as he was known to start problems just for the sake of starting them. Danzo lived only for war and conflict, and had tried since day one of Naruto's birth to obtain the child to turn him into a weapon using his ANBU Root division.

After explaining everything to the council, and shoving away Danzo's usual requests for the boy, he then explained his theory behind the cause of the chakra blasts. His theory, from his studies of the seal and what he was told from witnesses, was that the first wave happened when the seal completed the merge. Hiashi had reported that a moment before the first blast, the seal was colored purple in its entirety. His belief was that the second, smaller blast was caused by the disappearance of the seal, as Hiashi had also reported that the seal vanished right after that blast.

He had quickly called that meeting, asking for everyone present to calm any panic, or take care of any confusion they were to witness, as he would need all the help he could get in order to completely diffuse the situation. When the meeting ended, Danzo had once again started his requests for the boy, stating now that the boy had what he deemed, almost unlimited chakra, that he was the perfect weapon, and would allow Konoha to become the supreme power. The Sandaime had no problem quickly shooting down the request, stating that he will never allow the boy to become a weapon. He, and the Yondaime, believed that the boy deserved a normal life, and he would do everything in his power to achieve that for him.

After he escaped from Danzo, the Hokage was summoned into the meeting he dreaded the most. This meeting was with another council, the council that ran the civilian portion of the village. The civilian council, as he dubbed them, always had a strong hatred for the Uzumaki. They were never close with the Yondaime, nor did they care for the last wish of the deceased Hokage. They have tried many times to call for the public execution of Naruto, never to succeed. The Sandaime was assuming on the way towards the meeting room, that they would try again, using the shock wave as evidence of his danger to society.

His assumption was correct, as the moment he stepped into the room, chaos broke out. The council members lost all sense of dignity as they were screaming and calling for the "demon boy's" execution. The Sandaime had allowed them to rant and rave for a little while as he calmly smoked from his pipe. On the outside, he was calm and collected, but on the inside his blood was boiling. Eventually he demanded they shut up, and the meeting progressed. They called for the execution of the demon, and backed it up with reasons they believed were valid, while the Hokage had shot down each one every time. At the end of the meeting, the civilian council was outraged that they had failed once again, while the Sandaime was just glad the meeting from hell was over.

Before the day was over, the Hokage had attended to many more meetings, some with respected Shinobi, others with respected businessmen. Each meeting concerned Uzumaki, and in each one, he assured them that the boy was not a danger.

The Sandaime was not one to underestimate his populace though, and before he took his leave for the day, he ordered a rotation of his most trusted ANBU squads currently in active duty, and had them watch over the boy, and protect him from all harm.

By the end of 2 days, Naruto was completely healthy. His coils were fully adapted and strong enough to hold the chakra in it's entirety, and his body had shown no ill after effects of the merge. He had yet to grow more, so it was the popular belief that he only grew enough to support the chakra. Naruto was released from the hospital and returned to the academy to amaze his classmates and friends at his new growth. After that day, the Hokage received countless reports concerning the boys change. The trained Shinobi, including Naruto's senseis, all noted not only the physical change, but the change in the feel of his chakra as well.

Even with Naruto now being in public for the majority of his time, the elder Hokage did not take any chances and kept the rotation of ANBU watch on the boy. It was a decision he would come to believe was the best thing he ever did for the boy.

As the days progressed, the reports concerning Naruto kept piling up. The Sandaime had paid most of his attention from the very detailed reports from Naruto's ANBU, though. Those reports were growing by the day, and it was beginning to worry the Sandaime tremendously.

At the end of a week, his concern tripled, so he called a meeting with his advisors to see what they believed he should do. After much discussion with them, they called an emergency meeting of the clan heads, as they did not want Danzo present in this meeting.

This is where we could find the elder Sandiame currently, sitting beside his two advisors at the front of the meeting room to which the council was summoned. He was leaning back calmly while smoking from his pipe, where his two advisors were sitting quietly in a polite and dignified manner. They were waiting patiently for the clan heads to arrive.

The room they were in was a very large rectangular room, decorated blandly with only the pictures of the previous Hokages adorning the walls. A rectangular table was in the center of the room, lined with very comfortable looking executive chairs. The Hokage was currently at the head of the table, as was his usual place in these meetings. He had a stack of folders in front of him, which he would need as part of the meeting.

Before too long, the council members began their arrivals. The first to arrive was the always early, Hyuuga Hiashi. The man had never been late for a meeting, and as such, usually arrived before the others. As he took his seat the door opened to reveal the famed Jounin Ino-Shika-Cho trio, which consisted of Yamanaka Inoichi, Nara Shikaku, and Akimichi Chouza. They were always seen together, chatting about whatever was on their minds at the time.

It wasn't too long after their arrival did the next arrive, Aburame Shibi. He was the clan head of the always stoic Aburame clan. None could ever remember a time when Shibi was ever not serious. The last to arrive was the rowdy leader of the Inuzuka clan, Inuzuka Tsume, and her companion Kuromaru. The only seat still open was the seat reserved for the Uchiha clan, which would not be taken for some time, as Uchiha Sasuke was far too young to take a position in the council.

The Hokage gave the council members a few moments to get comfortable before beginning the meeting, "Thank you for coming on such a short notice. I am sure you have better things to do, but this matter needs to be taken care of quickly."

After a short moment of silence, the always intelligent and observant Nara Shikaku spoke up, "Would I be correct in assuming this meeting is about the Uzumaki?"

The Hokage nodded while replying, "I am sure you have all been briefed about the recent events concerning the child. Before we begin the meeting, is there anything that you are not up to date on and would like an answer to?"

Giving them a few moments to think, he packed another bowl full of tobacco into his pipe before lighting it with a katon jutsu. Just as he was about to begin the meeting, he was stopped by Hyuuga Hiashi, "Yes, there is something I would like to know. How has the boy been since the merge? The last I have heard was that his chakra coils were successful in adapting to the chakra, but I have not had time to look into it myself."

The Hokage smiled at the concern evident in Hiashi's voice and answered, "Naruto is doing very well considering. His health from what we are able to tell, is in perfect condition. The only problem he is currently dealing with himself is the change in his height, I have heard it has made him very popular amongst his classmates." he chuckled lightly before continuing, "He has fully absorbed the entirety of the chakra without any harm, which I am personally glad for."

"That is very good news, I am glad to hear it. It would most definitely be a tragedy if we were to lose the boy. I feel he has unmeasurable potential." replied Hiashi, before taking a quick sip of the glass of water in front of him.

"Yes, he does. Now I believe we should discuss the reason I have called this meeting. While his health is fine, his safety is far from it."

Tsume looked scared as if they were talking about one of her own children, as she always cared for the blond haired boy, "No. Don't tell me that there has been attacks against him?"

The Hokage looked at her sadly before replying, "Unfortunately there has been."

The booming voice of Akimichi Chouza interrupted him before he could continue speaking, "How many are we talking about here?"

"As of this morning, sixteen."

"Whoa. It's only been a week since it happened, and you're telling us that there has been 16 attacks against him in that short amount of time?" questioned Yamanaka Inoichi, "Have any of them been successful in harming the boy?"

The Hokage frowned, and took a small puff of smoke from his pipe before answering, "Only one has caused any injuries, and fortunately for him, it was just a flesh wound."

"So I take it you still have a guard around him, then?" questioned Hiashi, as he had known about the guard since the day it began.

"Yes, I have an entire squad following him everywhere. They were able to stop all of the attacks before they became severe risks." responded the elder Hokage.

"Were any of the attackers Shinobi?" questioned Shikaku, trying to put together an image of exactly how severe the situation was in his mind.

"Two. And that is what worries me. One was one of Naruto's academy teachers, Mizuki. Another was a highly trained ANBU member. The one from the ANBU was the only one who was able to land a scratch. Those two are also the only attacks that Naruto is aware of to my knowledge, as they are the only ones to make contact with him. The guard around him managed to stop the other civilian attackers before they made it close to the boy."

"Were they sent for interrogation, as the guidelines suggest?" questioned Chouza, and upon witnessing the Hokage nod his reply, he asked the other question he had on his mind, "Did we find out anything about their motivation?"

"Yes, and that is what has me worried most for the child's safety." he started, thinking how he was going to explain it to them, "From the information both Shinobi gave us, they were hired by the same group. It is a group you are unfortunately familiar with. Even worse, though, is that I hold no power over them."

Shikaku spoke up, his voice clearly showing that he was hoping his guess was not correct, "It was the civilian council, wasn't it?"

The Hokage nodded gravely, and silence fell over the room for a few moments. "This is worse than I thought, then." explained Inoichi, "If it were just some random thugs, or any Shinobi of ours, we could easily take them down and put a stop to them, but we hold no power over that council. Do you have any idea of how we could possibly put a stop to their attempts?"

Before the Sandaime could say anything, Chouza piped up, "How are they hiring them? Are they offering them political power if they succeed, money, or something else? There has to be a reason our very own Shinobi would turn against another."

"Indeed there is a reason, a very tempting one at that." the Hokage sighed then continued, "They are offering a very large amount of money. As you know, that council is made up purely of very successful businessmen and women. They have a lot of money to spare, and I'd assume they all pitched in money to fund the reward."

"How much money are we talking about here?" questioned Shikaku, his curiosity overtaking him.

"Enough for a brand new genin to retire on, and still take care of any children he or she may have, all the while living the grand life."

A few of the council members whistled their awe, "That indeed is a very tempting offer, which makes me believe that there will be many more attempts to take the boy's life. We are going to have to do something drastic in order to keep him safe until we can convince the council to stop this foolish action." voiced Hyuuga Hiashi.

For the first time this meeting, Aburame Shibi spoke up, "I believe we should place him in hiding. If he is placed in a secure location, with only our most trusted Shinobi guarding him, then we can protect him from any assassination attempts."

The council seemed to dwell on that thought for a moment before the Hokage spoke up, "In theory that would work, yes. There is one major flaw to that plan. In order to keep his location a secret, and to keep him secure, we would have to shut him off completely from society. That would prove to be very disastrous in the long run for the boy."

"I agree. I may not know him very well, but from what I saw of his memories, Uzumaki is a very social boy. He thrives on attention, which is the reason he is always causing trouble and performing pranks. Since people usually ignore him, he gets their attention, and he loves it. Any attention, even negative is better for him than none at all." commented Inoichi.

"Yes, sheltering him from society would only cause me to worry for his sanity. He already has a fragile mind when you take into account everything he has been through and has experienced in his short life." commented Tsume.

Silence fell over the room once again as the council pondered their options, before Nara Shikaku spoke the thought thats been bugging him since the discussion on ideas started, "Hokage-sama. You already have an idea, don't you? Judging from the amount of folders sitting in front of you, whatever you have planned concerns the contents of those folders."

Everyones attention was once again on the Sandaime as he chuckled, "You always were the smart one. Yes, I do have a plan that I believe is our only option to protect the child."

"And whatever you have planned demands our approval, am I correct?" questioned Hyuuga Hiashi.

"Indeed it does. This idea is a bit unorthodox, but it is the only viable option that Koharu, Homura and myself were able to come up with."

"What are you proposing then?" questioned Inuzuka Tsume.

"I am proposing that we grant Naruto an early graduation from the academy. I feel he is capable of passing with flying colors. With this graduation, he will officially be a ninja under my command. What this will allow is for me to send him on missions, and I happen to have an out of village mission already lined up."

Everyone except for his two advisors looked at him skeptically for a few moments trying to understand how this will help. "How exactly will this protect the boy? By himself, he will be easy pickings for any bandits or missing nins outside of the village walls. In that case he'd be safer with the guard on him at all times." questioned Akimichi Chouza.

The Hokage sighed at the part where they believed him to be stupid enough to send a single genin out by himself, "I am not so naive as to send him by himself, Chouza. I wish to place him on a genin team, with a jounin sensei."

"That makes a lot more sense, I apologize for the insult, Hokage-sama," explained Chouza.

Before the Sandaime could speak, Shikaku piped up, "What team would we place him on, though? As far as I know, every genin team we have is already full, and the Chunnin exams are still 4 months away. Since it isn't wartime, we cannot just promote someone to Chunnin for him to take their place."

"That is where these folders come in. You are correct in saying that there are no available spots on already formed teams, but that does not stop us from creating one, does it?"

"Ah, I get it now. Those folders contain the files of his classmates, don't they?" Inoichi questioned.

The Hokage nodded then explained himself, "I have already taken the liberty of narrowing down the list to 8 classmates to which I believe have the potential to work well with Naruto. Most of whom you are familiar with. But before we move on to choose his team mates, does anyone oppose or have any questions about this plan?"

Nara Shikaku sighed lazily before relaying his thoughts, "I believe that it is indeed the best we can do. If his team's location is kept secret, known only to those we trust, we can insure his safety from any attempts at his life. This will also allow him to still be able to socialize with people he may call friends. This will also grant Naruto the training to defend himself if need be. With the team spending all of their time together, their teamwork will surely be better than the average team. This also gives him an extra year of training under his and his teammates belt, and with the potential I see in Naruto, especially now with his newfound chakra, I believe this is giving him a head start to become a very successful ninja. With his chakra supply, I wouldn't doubt that with the right training he would become one of our best ninja."

"Any other questions or comments?"

After waiting a moment in silence, Koharu spoke up, "I have one request if we are deciding on this plan. I request that Uzumaki and his team mates be given the official academy genin examination. If they are unable to pass, we will have to find another solution. I would feel much better knowing that they at least had mastered the abilities taught at the academy."

"Any disagreements with that request?" question the Sandaime, and after waiting a few more moments in silence he continued, "Then it is settled. Naruto and two of his classmates will be given the academy exam. If they pass, they will be placed into a team together under a jounin sensei. I will immediately assign them a long term out of village mission where they will train."

The Hokage glanced over at the clock on the wall before continuing, "I don't have much time left, as I have much to do in my office, so the rest of this meeting will have to be short. I want each of you to choose two students that you believe would work best with Naruto. Tomorrow morning at 8 AM we will meet back here and discuss our choices, and once the students are chosen, we will move on to choose their jounin sensei."

"I do have one thing I'd like to say before this meeting is over, if I can." When the Hokage nodded at him, Shikaku continued, "When choosing team mates for Uzumaki, I believe we have to follow some guidelines to make the most out of this opportunity. First and most important is that we have to choose students who get along with Naruto. I'd expect that they would have to be very understanding people, as Naruto will most likely have to reveal his burden that he used to carry to explain his newfound chakra. Naruto is also a very...different type of person, and there are some he might not get along with, and that would prove detrimental to the team."

He took a deep breath before continuing, "Second, I believe we should choose students who have the potential to become great. From what I know of Naruto, not only does he have the potential, he works hard. If we were to give him someone who is not willing to work as hard as him, it may also prove detrimental to the group. They will also need to have the potential to pass the examination."

"And finally, I believe we should not let anything cloud our judgments when choosing his team mates. I trust each of you to already understand this, but I will say it anyways. In those files, our sons or daughters may be present. Do not choose them for that reason alone, as bias is never a good thing. By bias I also mean that we should not choose someone based on their bloodline as well. Bloodlines are great and all, but they do not make the ninja. Pick only who you believe would work best with Naruto, and who you believe has the most potential."

A moment of silence before the Hokage spoke up, "Wise words as always, Shikaku. I trust in each of you to follow those guidelines. Now, time is short, so I must end this meeting. Follow me back to my office where I will give each of you a copy of the student's files."

With that, everyone got up and followed the Hokage towards his nearby office and awaited their copies. They each briefly looked over the Hokage's choices before making their way back to their own homes to study the files and make their own decision.

* * *

The next morning, the exact same members of the council could be seen in the exact same room, thoroughly debating and discussing their student choices in order to find the perfect two students for the team. Their debate was nearing an end, as they had the choices narrowed down to three student choices, but they needed to knock it down to two.

After around twenty more minutes of debate, the silent Homura finally spoke his piece, "Can I have your attention for one moment, please?"

He waited a few moments for the current conversation to finish and when everyones attention was on him, he continued, "Thank you. I believe I have a solution to this problem we seem to be having. We have a total of three students chosen, so I suggest we test all three. That will cover the chance that one of them may fail the genin exam."

"And if none of them fail?" questioned Shikaku.

"Then we test them more thoroughly until it has been narrowed down to two. As far as I can tell, each of those three chosen students are perfect for the spot, which is why we are having such a hard time choosing only two. I believe we should give all three a chance to prove themselves, with only the best two passing."

"You have a very good idea, Homura. I also believe that is what we should do. Does anyone have any objections to this?" questioned the Sandaime, who was thankful that they seem to have come to a possible solution. He was beginning to get a headache with all of the 'debate', also known as arguing loudly, going on.

He waited patiently for a few moments in silence, hoping nobody would break it. When not one spoke, he finished, "Then it is settled. We shall test all three, with the best two making it to the team. Now lets move on to the other topics we must handle regarding this team."

"I have one quick question, Hokage-sama, that we have not covered yet. When the team is formed, are they to be given the secondary genin exam, like normal?" questioned Hyuuga Hiashi. It had been a question that was bothering him since the meeting ended the night before.

The Hokage looked thoughtful for a few moments before replying, "I do not believe they should. They will be burdened with having over a year less education than their peers, and as such, I believe we need to be fair to them. As you are well aware, the second exam is to test teamwork. Normally those teams being tested have never worked together before, but this team will be different. They will be living together, practically a family. I believe their teamwork will meet the required level."

"You do have a very good point. So will we be giving this team an autopass?" Nara Shikaku questioned.

"I will put that up to a vote. All those who oppose an autopass, please say so now." ordered the Sandaime. He waited patiently for a minute for any person to oppose it, and then continued, "All those who agree with an autopass, please say so now."

The room exploded with yays, and various other agreements. Giving it a moment to settle, he began, "Then it is official, the team will be given an autopass. Now on to other matters. We still have to choose a jounin sensei, and then we will work out any mission details that we may have forgotten. We shall choose the jounin sensei first."

"Who are the possible candidates?" questioned Inuzuka Tsume, "And are we familiar with them, or do you have their files on hand?"

"You are indeed familiar with the choices. We have four choices that we can choose from, although I believe it will automatically be narrowed down to three. The candidates are Hatake Kakashi, Yuuhi Kurenai, Sarutobi Asuma, and Mitarashi Anko. I would have liked to have a larger selection, but I believe we need to trust them completely. As such, I have chosen these four, some of my most trusted jounin."

"You don't trust Gai?" questioned Akimichi Chouza, "I mean, how can someone not trust him? He's got to be the most loyal person I have ever met."

Inuzuka Tsume chuckled, "He's pretty darn odd, too."

The Sandaime chuckled lightly, "Indeed he is odd, and I couldn't imagine him any other way. I do trust him, but I was not able to sway him into taking this team. It seems he has his heart set on a certain student that is to be graduating in a few months, one Rock Lee. Apparently Rock Lee is unable to use chakra, but he is very hardworking. With Gai as the best Taijutsu specialist in all of Konoha, he believes he is the only one who would be able to teach Lee to become a successful Konoha Shinobi."

"I see." commented Akimichi Chouza, "Rock Lee is one lucky student, Gai will be able to whip him into shape. I just hope he doesn't influence the poor boy too much, I would hate to see another Gai running around."

At that mention the majority of the council members, the Hokage included, shuddered visibly when they pictured two Gais running around town yelling about the flames of youth. One was enough.

"Anyways, let us begin."

Nara Shikaku spoke up first, "As much as I think Kakashi is an able Shinobi for the job, I do not think he will fit this team very well. He can be very lazy at times, and most of the members for this team are all hard working, it would not mesh well. The largest reason I have against him being on this team is the Uchiha. Kakashi will need to teach him to use his Sharingan when it is activated, so Kakashi would do best waiting for the Uchiha."

The council looked thoughtful for a moment, as Shikaku did have a very good point.

"I agree with Shikaku, I also do not believe he is fit for this team for those same reasons." commented Aburame Shibi.

"Is there anyone here that believes Kakashi would be the best sensei for this team?" questioned the Sandaime, when he did not receive a response after a few moments he spoke up again, "I myself believe Shikaku is right, and with no objections, we will remove Kakashi from the list of choices. Now lets move on to the other three."

Hyuuga Hiashi spoke his piece first, "I believe we should also rule out Asuma. My reason for that is the kunoichi of this team will work best with a female sensei. It's quite possible the kunoichi will require help with female matters, and I do not believe Asuma will be prepared for that. The kunoichi will not be located here in the village to get help from parents or relatives either, so it is in the kunoichi's best interest if there was an able women around to assist them."

Inuzuka Tsume spoke up, being one of the two women in the room, "He's right. They are around the age where the girls change. I don't think it would be appropriate to leave it to a male to help them with it, and a woman would be much more knowledgeable about the subject. From our choices in the two female senseis, they are both just as capable as the men when it comes to training their students."

"They do bring up a good point. I would also like to add, that while Asuma is a fine ninja in all regards, he can be quite lazy, as you should know very well, Hokage-sama, seeing as he is your son."

The Sandaime chuckled, "I definitely have to agree with that, Inoichi. Well, it seems that Asuma is being ruled out, are there any objections to that?"

The room stayed quiet, so the elder Hokage continued, "Now the list is down to Yuuhi Kurenai, and Mitarashi Anko, both great kunoichi in their own respects."

"Out of those two, my choice would have to be Anko." Nara Shikaku spoke up then continued, "Kurenai is a great shinobi, but she is a specialist. While her genjutsu is supreme on every account, her taijutsu and ninjutsu are severely lacking. Out of our three choices, and then Uzumaki, the training they will require most will not be in genjutsu, it will be in taijutsu and ninjutsu."

"Anko is a specialist as well, Shikaku," explained Hyuuga Hiashi, "She is an assassin, through and through."

"I know that, Hiashi. As an assassin, she is trained in all three regards, taijutsu, genjutsu, and ninjutsu. She is well rounded, knowing all three aspects to the best of her abilities. Each student is going to go down different paths with their style, and I believe that with her equal knowledge in all aspects, she will be better off when it comes to training the entire group."

The room was quiet for a few moments as the council absorbed the arguments, then Inoichi spoke up, "I believe Shikaku is correct. Each student will have different needs, and with Kurenai focusing all of her effort on genjutsu, she severely lacks knowledge in taijutsu and ninjutsu."

Aburame Shibi spoke up in a very stoic manner, "Indeed I too believe that Anko-san is the best choice. Not only on account of her training, but on her personality as well. From all we know about Naruto, and two of the three choices, their personalities match perfectly with Anko's. They are hardworking, eccentric in their own rights, emotional, caring, and understanding."

"Speaking of their personalities, I believe Anko will be able to play the motherly role better than Kurenai. Anko knows when to stop and help a student with an emotional problem. She has quite the background when it comes to her own emotional problems, so she has the experience and knowledge to help the situation. Unlike Kurenai, Anko is very, well, childish at times. She jokes around, yet she knows when to be serious. Anko's motherly instincts have also shown. She will grow to care for the students as if they were her own children, and as such, she will make sure they are kept healthy by watching their habits closely. Pretty much what I am saying, is that she can be strict, but she knows when to let loose. These students are still children after all." commented Inuzuka Tsume. As a mother she knew what it took to be a successful one.

"Each of you have presented very good points. Is there anyone here that is in favor of Kurenai?" questioned the Sandaime, after a few moments passed, "Well then, I believe we have found our sensei. Any objections to Mitarashi Anko as the jounin sensei for this team?"

He waited again, and when nobody spoke up he continued, "Very well then, the team has been formed. I currently have a half an hour left before I am scheduled to make a visit at the academy. I would like us to be done by then, as I will give them the genin test myself while I am there."

"Now, let's work out the details of this mission..."

* * *

AN: Boring, eh? It's just how I envision that council meetings would go. I also tried my hardest to not reveal too much about the upcoming team, as I'd rather you have to wait till the next chapter. :p


	3. The Exam

Disclaimer: Bleh, I hate disclaimers. Just remember: I don't own, nor will I ever own, the wonder called Naruto.

* * *

Naruto Uzumaki's day was not starting out as well as he would have liked.

At exactly seven in the morning, is when the day went downhill. His alarm clock, set to wake him at seven, did not go off. Why not? Apparently the clock fell victim to a brutal attack, as the only remains left was a few springs and plastic that once made up the casing. It would be something that would cause Naruto to wonder for years, as he had no memory of destroying his alarm clock. That was something he would never do, as he didn't like to sleep in. He felt like it was wasting his life away.

So he laid there, sound asleep, and one by one, the minutes passed by.

The ANBU guards watching his house for any activity were left wondering, as over the week they have been guarding him, they noticed that he never failed to wake up at exactly seven in the morning. His usual routine was to wake up, stretch, take a quick shower, and sit down half asleep at his dining room table and wait for his ramen to cook. After eating his ramen he would get dressed, and do a few basic exercises, such as push-ups, and sit-ups, to help get the blood flowing. When he was finished with that, he would gather all of the gear required for a ninja and make his way out of the house towards the academy.

His routine was so well set, that it made one ANBU worry. Naturally, when one worries, they investigate, so the boar masked ANBU made his way towards the boy's window in his room and took a look around. He saw the boy sound sleep and wondered why, until he saw the remains of the alarm clock. He let out a brief chuckle before knocking loudly on the window to wake the boy up.

Naruto heard the tapping sounds on his window and opened his eyes to see what was causing it. When he saw the ANBU he stood up and opened the window, as if to ask why the ANBU was there. When questioned, the ANBU just explained that it was 7:30, and if he didn't get moving now, he would be late for the academy. Naruto was dumbfounded momentarily, wondering why he would sleep through his alarm clock until he saw it and cursed. He didn't have the money to replace it, not after having to buy all new clothes to fit his new size. They were the same style, however, as he was quite fond of it.

Screaming "Thanks Mr Piggy ANBU man!", the blond ran towards the bathroom to take a quick shower. The shower, which lasted only a few minutes, was quicker than usual. After exiting the shower, he changed his routine and immediately got dressed in his usual orange jumpsuit before putting a pot of water on the stove to boil. Even though he was in a rush, he knew that one should never skip breakfast. He silently grumbled about the wait time, a whole three minutes, that it took to cook the ramen after the water was boiling. When the ramen was finished, he dug into the cup with his usual vigor that he was well known for.

He glanced over at the clock on his wall and noticed that he now had 15 minutes to get to the academy or he'd be late. A late Naruto equals an angry Iruka, and an angry Iruka is not a fun experience for anyone. He threw away the ramen cup and gathered up his ninja gear, forgoing his usual morning exercise. He decided that the run on the way would more than make up for it.

When he finished strapping on his gear, he grabbed his keys and ran out the door, locking it. He then began his trek towards the academy at full speed, knowing full well that the ANBU that were assigned to guard him would be able to keep up easily. Unknown to him, three of the four ANBU that were running along with him were busy making fun of the ANBU with the boar mask. They had a new nickname for him.

* * *

A distance away from the current chaos going on at the Uzumaki residence, Nara Shikamaru was having a very relaxing morning. As per the usual, he woke up at 6:30 am to the sounds of a waterfall that his alarm clock makes. His excuse for that specific sound was that it was just loud enough to wake him, and relaxing at the same time. After waking up, he lazily laid back in bed for about a half an hour, staring at his painted ceiling. The mural that was painted on his ceiling was a very basic one. It consisted of being colored sky blue, with a few spots of white clouds, simulating the sky, which Shikamaru loved to watch.

Right around 7 in the morning, Shikamaru's peace was interrupted as his mother began yelling for him to wake up and get ready for the academy. He sighed loudly, before getting up and heading towards the shower while muttering 'Troublesome woman' under his breath. He didn't dare voice it any louder than that, though, as if his mother heard, she would escalate to a whole new level of the word 'troublesome'.

After taking a long, relaxing, hot shower, Shikamaru lazily got dressed in his usual attire. He took a quick glance at the clock and noticed he still had 45 minutes before he had to be at the academy. Plenty of time for a quick nap, right?

"Shikamaru! Don't you dare go back to sleep! Get down here and eat your breakfast!"

Well, it would have been at least.

Heaving another loud sigh, he made his way downstairs and towards the dining room, where a usual plate of eggs, bacon, and toast awaited him. He slowly ate the food in relative silence, enjoying the flavor. When his mother joined him in the dining room, he asked, "Where's dad this morning? He's usually the first to the table."

"He's upstairs in his office doing some paperwork. Apparently he has a very important meeting in a little while."

"Oh, okay." he responded, knowing it would be too troublesome to get any more details. He finished up his breakfast and made his way to the front door and gathered his ninja gear that was on the nearby table. He strapped it on and called out goodbye to his mother before leisurely making his way towards the academy.

* * *

Sitting above the flower shop resided one Yamanaka Ino, who was currently looking through her closet deciding if she would want to try something new today, or just wear her usual attire. She glanced over at the clock and noticed it was 7:00 and quickly decided to just wear her usual clothes, as she didn't have enough time to find another matching outfit she would like.

Taking her clothes into the bathroom, she took a nice long, hot shower, cleaning every part of her body thoroughly. When the shower finished, 20 minutes had passed by. She stood in front of the mirror after getting dressed admiring her looks, examining every detail to make sure everything was perfect. She believed her Sasuke-kun would not settle for anything less than perfection, so she tried her best daily to deliver.

After making sure everything was perfect, she went downstairs to the kitchen to find a note on the refrigerator.

_Morning princess,_

_You're on your own for breakfast this morning. I have an important meeting at 8, and I can't be late. I have a few things to do before I get there, so I didn't have enough time to cook breakfast. Don't skip out on it like you always try to. I'll know if you do and you won't like it._

_-Inoichi_

Debating whether her father would really know if she skipped breakfast, she decided not to risk it. When her father was angry, there was hell to pay, and she didn't feel like experiencing it.

She decided on a small bowl of cinnamon-apple oatmeal, which she quickly prepared and sat down to eat. While sitting at the table she did her daily routine of looking through the newspaper. While she didn't look at the news, she did find the ads for all of the clothing stores interesting. After browsing through all of the new styles, she found nothing particularly interesting.

Looking up at the clock, she noticed she still had 15 minutes until she had to be at the academy. She decided to wait, like usual, for Sakura to pass by her house so she could have a little friendly competition. She always did secretly love their fights. Deciding to do something useful while waiting, she went into the store and watered the flowers, giving them just enough, and not too much. An art that she perfected over the years of helping her father run the store.

She caught a hint of red making it's way towards the front of her store and immediately knew it could only be one person. Gathering up her ninja gear, she quickly strapped it on and made her way out of the house just in time to run into Sakura. Smirking inwardly, she immediately started throwing her usual insults at the girl.

* * *

Haruno Sakura woke at 6 in the morning from a quick nudge of the shoulder and the sound of her mother's gentle voice, "Time to get up, dear."

She groaned quietly before sparing a quick glance over at the nearby alarm clock and cursed inwardly at the time. She had always hated the mornings, as she believed that a girl needed her beauty sleep. Her mother wouldn't allow it, though, always believing that they should be awake at day break. She slowly got up as her mother left her alone in the room and made her way over to her dresser to gather her undergarments. After choosing two that matched, she walked over to the closet and picked out her usual red dress that adorned the symbol of her family.

She paused in front of the mirror and grimaced at the way she looked. Her hair was completely messed up, and her eyes had light circles around them, something she would have to take care of if she wanted to become Uzumaki Sakura. She believed that he deserved only the best.

She quickly made her way to the shower upon determining that she was in need of some care. She took a very long shower, allowing the hot water to relax her muscles. Upon finishing nearly 20 minutes later, she exited the shower and dried herself thoroughly. Standing in front of the bathroom mirror, she carefully groomed her long hair until she thought it to be perfect. After getting dressed she looked in the mirror again and paid close attention to her eyes.

Noticing that they still looked bad, she put a little makeup on to cover it up. When she determined that it was acceptable, she left her room and made her way downstairs to eat breakfast with her mother, like she usually did.

Her mother was a very understanding person, and when Sakura explained to her that she was on a diet, her mother accommodated her to the best of her abilities. Though Sakura, at first, refused to eat breakfast, not wanting to put on any extra weight, her mother quickly corrected her. She explained the importance of breakfast, which Sakura had already knew, but refused to acknowledge. At first Sakura was hesitant, but her mother finally compromised and promised to only make her a light meal for breakfast, to which she agreed to.

When she arrived at the dining room table, her mother was already sitting down eating her breakfast. She sat down where her plate was and began to eat her meal of 2 eggs and 2 pieces of toast, a light yet sustainable breakfast.

After finishing breakfast, she took over the job of cleaning up the mess, and washed the dishes. When she was finished she noticed it was nearing 7:00, and decided she still had plenty of time, so she relaxed on her favorite love seat and began to read her current romance novel, all the while dreaming it was her and Naruto.

She quickly lost track of time while being stuck in her day dream. Her mother noticed that she was doing it again and frowned. She never could understand why her daughter refused to quit her act and just be happy. Why did she have to pretend to like the Uchiha? Was her reputation more important than her own happiness?

There were no secrets kept between mother and daughter in this household. She knew very well that Sakura believed the only person she could ever love was the Uzumaki boy. She also knew very well that her daughter was scared. Scared of being unpopular again, just like she used to be. The elder Haruno remembered those days like they were yesterday. Sakura would always come home from the academy in tears, crying because she was being made fun again due to her forehead.

She had stopped crying when she first met Naruto. He stuck up for her, and walked her home to make sure nobody else could make fun of her. He continued to do so until Sakura met her friend, Ino. When Sakura met Ino, her worries of being made fun of went away slowly, as she became part of the popular crowd in the school. Naruto was never part of that crowd, so Sakura slowly shied away from him in public in an attempt to keep her status, knowing if she went back to the way she used to be, she would be made fun of again. In secret, however, the two were best friends.

The elder Haruno could only hope that her daughter would gain enough confidence to not need to be popular. That way she could move on from her act and be with her crush, and ultimately be happy. She knew full well of the boys status as a jinchuuriki, but it didn't bother her. She believed the boy was merely a container. If anything, his personality showed that he was the direct opposite of a demon, he was a man that held the qualities of a saint.

Her mother glanced at the clock and realized that it was nearly time for the academy, so she walked over to her daughter and nudged her on the shoulder, breaking her from the daydream, "Honey, you only have 10 minutes before you need to be at the academy."

After hearing that, Sakura ran back up to her room and strapped on her ninja gear before rushing out of the house, saying a quick goodbye to her mother. As she made her way past the Yamanaka flower shop, just as she dreaded, her rival, Yamanaka Ino came out and started making fun of her, just like usual.

* * *

Neither of those four ended up being late, but they all were just barely on time. As they arrived in class, Ino and Sakura began fighting over who would sit in the spot next to Sasuke-kun. Shikamaru just rolled his eyes at the scene that happened daily and muttered, "Troublesome girls" before sitting in his spot next to Chouji and laying his head down on the desk. Naruto groaned at the scene and decided to stop it. After all, any attention, even negative, from his crush was enough for him.

He took the seat next to Sasuke, and watched as Sasuke actually seemed to visibly relax. _Did I just do him a favor? What was I thinking?! Oh well. _He didn't have the chance to think for long, as both girls had stopped their bickering and were looking at him dangerously, one cracking her knuckles and the other one slamming her fist into the palm of her other hand. He looked at the scene and gulped. Kiba roared with laughter while witnessing two very angry kunoichi-to-bes give new meaning to a headache.

A few rather large bumps on the head later, Iruka-sensei walked into class and cleared his throat, signaling to his students that the attention was to now be on him for the rest of the day.

The day passed by rather quickly as class, for once, did not consist of a lecture. Instead they were taken outside to the training ground and had organized spars against each other to practice the abilities they know in all three areas. It was encouraged that they use any technique that they had in their arsenal.

Naruto's spar with Kiba was the shortest of them all, as when they both made it onto the field, Naruto just grinned evilly. When Iruka-sensei ordered the spar to begin, he quickly made a familiar hand seal and transformed into a naked female version of himself, with clouds of smoke loosely covering certain parts of his female body. Kiba, and many of the male witnesses to the spar, Iruka-sensei included, all passed out from blood loss. Once again, though, Naruto's quick thinking, or lack thereof, quickly landed him in between quite a few angry Kunoichi in training.

When the spars ended, and all of the men woke up from their nap, Iruka-sensei lead them to the nearby training area for throwing weapons, as he felt some of his students needed to work on their accuracy. They stayed their for quite a bit of the day, before they were called back into class for a lecture, which made everyone, except Sakura, groan.

When they arrived in class and took their seats, Iruka-sensei quickly grabbed their attention, or at least what he could, and began explaining the importance of taking care of their gear. It was a subject they have heard before, and were likely to hear again, but after he noticed the condition of the gear his students were using, he felt they needed to be reminded.

Just as he was beginning to get to the good part, the one where he explained in detail how to sharpen a dull kunai, the class was interrupted by the door opening, revealing the Hokage. All attention was on him as he walked casually towards Iruka, "I hope I wasn't interrupting anything important."

"Not at all, Hokage-sama. We were just reviewing on how to care for their gear properly." answered Iruka, gesturing for the Hokage to observe his bored looking students, "As you can see, it's a very interesting topic."

The Sandaime chuckled as he looked through the students and saw the majority looked half asleep, only a few paying attention. "I can see that. Anyways, do you have a moment to speak, Iruka?"

Iruka nodded and looked towards the class, "I expect that you will be on your best behavior while I'm outside. You wouldn't want to disappoint me, would you?" He smiled amusedly when he got a bunch of frantic nodding from some of his students, ah the joys of being a teacher. "After you, Hokage-sama."

The Hokage with Iruka in tow quickly made his way outside of the classroom and shut the door. "What did you need to speak to me about?"

"Straight to the point as always." The Sandaime began, "The council and I have recently come to a decision regarding a few of your students."

"And what decision would that be?" Iruka questioned warily. It wasn't everyday that the council took an interest in your students.

"We are giving an early genin exam to a certain selection of students. If they are to pass, they will be placed together on a genin team." the Sandaime explained, he was about to continue but was interrupted by Iruka.

"So soon? This class is still a little over a year away from their official exam, what would cause the council to make a decision like that? And which students have you taken an interest in?"

"This decision is being made for several reasons, and I feel I can explain it to you. You know of Naruto's status in this village. Recently, on the day of the festival, there was an explosion of chakra which I'm sure you felt. You probably have guessed that it came from Naruto. I can't explain everything to you, but what I can explain is that the blast has put his life in danger. Just in the past week since the festival, there have been 16 confirmed attempts at his life, from both civilians and shinobi. We have to do something drastic in order to protect him. As for the students of interest, there is obviously Naruto. The others are Haruno Sakura, Yamanaka Ino, and Nara Shikamaru."

"Excellent choices, they are some of my best. What is this drastic plan you have in store for them, if I may ask?"

The Sandaime thought for a moment on how much he could explain to Iruka then answered, "We are placing them on a genin team if they are to pass, as I said earlier. As genin, I am able to assign them missions. Immediately after the team is formed, I will be sending them, along with their jounin sensei, on a long term mission outside of the village for training. This will get Naruto outside of the village, as well as give his team a head start on some very important training."

Iruka nodded his understanding, "Can I be of any help? I would like to help in any way I can to help insure Naruto's safety."

"I was hoping you would. I would like to you perform a review of their jutsus. Test them on the graduation required ones, the henge, kawarimi, and bunshin. Allow Naruto to use kage bunshin in place of bunshin, as he is unable to perform the standard bunshin, which you have already been informed of. How you do it is up to you, be it a class wide test, or pulling them aside. I will observe, and be the judge on if they graduate or not."

"Understood, Hokage-sama. I will do a class wide test. That way I can also test the progress of all of my students."

"Very well, shall we begin?" With that, both men made their way back into the classroom where Iruka cleared his voice and spoke clearly to his students, "Alright, change of plans for today. I want everyone to line up, we are going to test your abilities with the jutsus we have taught. Hokage-sama will be observing." When he finished, he waited as they all lined up in the front of the classroom, in a random order. The Hokage took a seat nearby and paid attention to each of the students. Even though he was only concerned with the performance of four, he still liked to know about all of his future shinobi.

The test went on for quite some time, student after student performing all three jutsus: henge, kawarimi, and bunshin. Some students failed to do some of the jutsus, while a few did all three without much effort. When Ino, Sakura, and Shikamaru's turn came up, he paid close attention. He watched as Sakura was able to perform all three jutsus without wasting an ounce of chakra and was slightly impressed, that was a rare talent in academy students. Ino completed all three jutsus successfully as well, which he had expected, as he had always known Inoichi to be very strict when it concerned the shinobi career of his daughter.

He frowned slightly when Shikamaru tried to perform the bunshin, but the only thing that happened was a cloud of smoke appearing, no bunshins at all. He was hoping Shikamaru would be successful, as he knew his father would most definitely not be happy. The Hokage listened in when Iruka was questioning Shikamaru about his bunshin, and he heard as Shikamaru explained that it was too troublesome to practice. He chuckled inwardly, like father like son.

The last student in the line happened to be Naruto. The entire idea was riding on him passing this test. If he failed, the Sandaime and the council would be back to square one, but the old Hokage had faith in the boy's abilities. He was not disappointed, as Naruto both successfully performed the kawarimi and the henge. When Naruto was asked to create a kage bunshin, the students began questioning why he had a different test, and how it wasn't fair. The Hokage decided he would settle this for Iruka.

"Naruto's test has been modified by myself. Naruto is not able to do a basic bunshin for reasons beyond his control, but he happens to know a jutsu that can overwrite the bunshin. The kage bunshin is just like the bunshin, as they both create clones. The kage bunshin is more advanced, however, as the clones are not illusions, they are solid."

After his explanation, the class's uproar died down to a dull whisper, where students were now questioning how Naruto knew such an obviously powerful jutsu. They all watched as Naruto successfully created enough clones to fill all of the empty spaces in the classroom and held them for a few seconds before dismissing them. The Hokage sighed, some things never change. Naruto was always looking for an opportunity to showoff.

As they all took their seats again, the Hokage was satisfied that his plan was indeed going into motion. He reached into his coat and pulled out the forms he would need to fill out to pass the students and he quickly began. It took him a few minutes, which was about the time the class needed to settle down. When he finished, he went over to Iruka and had him sign as a witness. Once that was complete, the Hokage pulled out three Konoha headbands, which made the students wonder. Sasuke smirked, believing that one of those headbands was for him. He was definitely disappointed when he heard the Sandaime's next words.

"I am proud of all of you. While some of you were having trouble with some jutsus, I believe that with a bit of practice, you will be able to master them in no time. You all did excellent, and I am sure you will make great shinobi in the future. Now, I need three of you to come to me, as we need to have a talk. Yamanaka Ino, Haruno Sakura, and Uzumaki Naruto, please follow me outside."

All three looked at each other before shrugging and followed the Hokage outside of the classroom. When they made it outside, the Hokage looked at the three students with a soft smile, and began to speak, "I would like to congratulate you. You three are now officially Shinobi of Konoha, the rank of genin."

"We graduated?" questioned Ino, and Sakura added, "I thought that wasn't for another year?"

Naruto was oddly quiet, both girls noticed, but what they didn't know was that he had an idea of where this was going. The Hokage also noticed his look of understanding and nodded to him, "You are correct, normally it would be another year before you would take the genin exam, but circumstances have changed that for you three. That entire class demonstration was just a ruse. I was there to give the exam to you, which you each passed with flying colors."

"Why did we get tested early?" questioned Ino, still not quite believing that she was a genin.

"While I can't inform you of every reason, I can explain to you one of them. The council and I have looked through the files of your class, and saw an amazing amount of potential in you three, and we decided to act on it." the Sandaime informed them.

Naruto thought for a moment before asking the question that was bugging him, "It's me, isn't it?"

Neither of the girls understood that, but the Sandaime obviously did, "Indeed, Naruto. Now that you have figured it out, it is your choice if you want me to tell them the reason. I understand if you'd rather keep it private."

Naruto looked down towards the ground and thought for a moment, shuffling his feet. Coming to a decision he spoke, "You can tell them the reason why this is needed. Sakura-chan already knows my secret, so I guess Ino should know as well, since she's my new teammate."

The Sandaime nodded, and looked towards the girls, "I expect you to keep this between yourselves," upon seeing their nods of agreement he continued, "The team is being created out of necessity. Naruto's life is in danger while he is here in Konoha, and I could not send him outside of the village unless he was a shinobi. In order for him to be one, he was in need of a team. We carefully looked through the files of every student to find students that would not only work well with him, but also had potential to become great ninjas individually. You two were chosen."

"How is his life in danger? I mean, isn't it safe here in Konoha?" asked Ino, a slight hint of concern in her voice. Sure she wasn't very fond of Naruto, but she would still treat him as a friend, and if a friend is in danger, that was never good.

Before the Sandaime could respond, Naruto spoke up softly, "16."

Ino furrowed her brows in confusion, "16? What's that supposed to mean?"

Sakura joined in, "16 what?"

The Sandaime looked at Naruto and studied him for a moment before asking, "You knew?" when Naruto slowly nodded his head, he sighed, "I was hoping you didn't, but then again, you always were very observant." The Hokage turned to both girls, "Since he knows, I can tell you a little bit more. As he said, there have been 16, but he didn't explain what. There have been 16 assassination attempts with him as the target in the past week alone. That is why it is dangerous for him here. Even at this moment, I have an ANBU team guarding him closely, but I fear that is not enough. Two of those 16 have made it past the guards and into striking distance. Fortunately the ANBU were able to stop them in time, but that may not always be the case. That is why I formed this team. The first thing you will do together as a team is a long term mission outside of this village, where you will train with your sensei."

Both girls look towards Naruto sadly, before Ino spoke up softly, "Why are there people trying to kill you? Did you do something bad?"

The Sandaime noticed Naruto's reluctance to answer, "Would you like me to explain it to her?" upon receiving a nod from Naruto, he turned to Ino, "Know that this is an S-class secret. You cannot repeat it to anyone, understand?"

Ino nodded her acceptance, so the Hokage continued, "What do you know about the Kyuubi?"

Ino put a finger on her chin and thought for a moment, "Well, Kyuubi was a gigantic demon fox that had 9 tails. He attacked the village 12 years ago but was stopped by the Yondaime. He fought the Kyuubi and eventually killed it, but the Yondaime died in the process. Why?"

Sakura sighed, "That's not exactly the truth, Ino. It's just what we were told."

Ino looked at her, not quite understanding. The Hokage noticed her curious look and continued for Sakura, "Sakura is correct. What you were taught about the Kyuubi is a lie. Kyuubi could not be killed, so the Yondaime did the only thing he could to stop it's rampage. He sealed it away. He didn't seal it in an object, as it would be too easy for it to escape, so he sealed it into a newborn baby. He sealed it into Naruto."

Ino looked at Naruto in shock. Naruto had his head down, awaiting a painful reaction to the information. "You...have the Kyuubi inside of you?"

"I used to. He's gone now." Naruto responded softly, still expecting to be hated by Ino.

"Used to? You never told me he was gone. How did you get rid of him?" questioned a very curious Sakura.

Naruto was trying to think of a way to explain it, but didn't have a chance to as the Hokage explained it for him, "Last week, on the day of the festival, did you feel the shock waves?" He watched as both girls nodded, "Those were caused by the seal that was holding the Kyuubi. Last week the Kyuubi merged with Naruto, leaving behind only his chakra. So the Kyuubi is now gone, forever, and Naruto was gifted with all of it's chakra."

Both girls voiced their awe at him having so much chakra. Naruto sighed, "Do you hate me now, Ino? I'll understand if you do."

"Why would I hate you for that? If anything I should thank you. I mean, we wouldn't even be alive right now if you didn't have him sealed inside of you all that time, would we?"

The Hokage smiled at the response, happy that Naruto now had one more person who accepted him for who he was. Naruto also smiled at the answer, glad he had a teammate who understood, because it would be hard to work with someone who hated you.

Sakura went over and gave Ino a hug, silently thanking her for being so understanding. She knew that it would have devastated her crush if Ino would have hated him. Ino was slightly confused by the reactions she received, but she shrugged it off.

"I am glad you both understand. Anyways, I have to leave now, as I need to inform your sensei of your graduation, and fill out the paperwork for the mission I am sending you on." the Sandaime explained, then glanced down to the objects he was still holding. Handing them out to the three genin he continued, "Wear these proudly, as they signify that you are Konoha shinobi."

Each of the three students took a headband from the Hokage and proceeded to wear them in the spots they liked best. Naruto tied his around his forehead, while Ino decided to wrap hers around her waist. Sakura took out the red ribbon in her hair, and replaced it with the headband. The Sandaime smiled proudly at the students before bidding his farewell and making his way towards the academy exit.

"Wait, Ojisan!," when Naruto got the Hokages attention he continued, "You never did keep that promise! I still have yet to use that jutsu that you promised me I could use when you were around!"

The Sandaime chuckled, in all honesty he had forgotten, "I am sorry, Naruto. Would you like to do it now?"

Naruto nodded furiously and was about to do the jutsu when Sakura questioned him, "What jutsu?"

"It's a summoning jutsu. You'll see in a second." and with that, Naruto formed the few hand seals that the fox had taught him and when the jutsu was successfully done, a small scroll appeared in his hands in a puff of smoke.

"That's it? You summoned a scroll?" exclaimed Sakura, obviously disappointed. "I was expecting something more, I don't know, useful I guess."

"What's the scroll about?" questioned Ino.

"I don't know, actually. This was the second time I've ever done the jutsu. The first time I didn't know how to open the scroll." He turned to the Sandaime, "Hey, Ojisan, how do I open it?"

The Sandaime walked closer to Naruto and examined the scroll for a moment, "That is a blood seal on the scroll. Draw some blood and wipe it across the seal. If you are accepted, the seal will release."

Naruto nodded his understanding, and both girls watched as he followed the instructions. Once complete, the seal glowed momentarily before disappearing. Naruto unrolled the scroll about halfway, and found another seal on it, "Uh, Ojisan, what's this one?"

"That, Naruto, is a storage seal. They are simple to use. Just focus some chakra to the palm of your hand and place it in the center of the seal, and whatever is stored inside will appear." explained the Sandaime, a little curious to know what could have been given to him by a demon such as Kyuubi.

Naruto did as told, and in a puff of smoke, appeared a scroll and a ninjato, it's blade encased in a black leather sheath. The handle of the sword was pure black, with three small white seals located along the side of the grip. Naruto looked towards the scroll for answers, as he knew the Hokage, and probably the girls, were also wondering about the item.

When he found the part about the seals he explained, "Apparently, this first one," he started, pointing to the first seal along the edge, the one closest to the blade, "Is a chakra channeling seal. The scroll says that the seal allows chakra to flow through the sword better. And this one," he explained, now pointing to the one in the middle between the two seals, "Is a chakra storage seal. I can store chakra in that seal for use in the channeling, so I don't have to use my own chakra I guess. And this last one," he explained pointing to the final seal, located close to the bottom of the hilt, "Is what this scroll calls a defense seal."

"It says that this sword is very valuable, and so it needed to be protected. Only the true owner of the sword is able to even touch it, anyone else who tries will get shocked violently, which will force them to drop the sword," he looked up and noticed all three were still paying close attention to him, "It also says I can allow others to use it, by combining a drop of my blood, and a drop of the other persons blood onto the seal and focus a small amount of chakra on it."

"Well, hurry up and unsheathe it already! I wanna see what it looks like!" cried Ino.

He nodded and pulled the sword out of it's leather sheath quickly, only to have his eyes widen and his jaw drop, though his weren't the only ones that did. The blade was slightly curved, about 2 feet in length, but what made it special was that it seemed to be made completely out of what could only be described as diamond.

Upon seeing the blade, there were different reactions throughout the group. Naruto immediately looked back over to the scroll and read the part about the blade, confirming what he believed the blade was made out of. The Sandaime looked closely and now understood why the Kyuubi would place such a seal on the sword, as it would indeed be very, very valuable. Ino gasped and screamed, "Holy shit!" to which the Hokage immediately told her to watch her language, as she was too young to say those words. Sakura was calm, yet still voiced her thoughts, not once looking away from the blade, "Wow...It's just...beautiful."

"It's made out of diamond, says right here." he explained pointing to one of the last paragraphs on the scroll, "It says the blade alone took over a decade to shape, and that diamond is the hardest substance known to man. Is that true?"

Ino responded, "Yeah, it's also a womans wet dream." which made Sakura giggle, "I'll say, and that's enough diamond to make every girl in this village happy."

The Sandaime chuckled, "Indeed, that ninjato is very valuable. I am glad that it has that defense seal on it then, as I would hate for it to get stolen. Is there anything else to know about it?"

"Um." a few moments later he finished what he was saying, "Yeah. The last owner of this sword, Kyuubi, placed a very powerful seal on the blade. It says here that he wanted to make sure that if anything were to happen to the blade, that it could be fixed. So if the blade gets broken in half or something, according to this, I can focus a large amount of chakra onto the point where the pieces meet, and it will repair itself until it is back in perfect condition. It takes a lot of chakra though."

The Sandaime looked towards Naruto, "I doubt the chakra cost would be a problem for you. Kami knows that you probably have enough to repair it ten times over."

"Hehe, probably!" he responded.

"Anyways, congratulations on the sword Naruto. It was a beautiful gift from him, which has me surprised. Maybe it would be best if you took an interest in kenjutsu?" questioned the Sandaime, to which Naruto nodded, "Yeah, I guess I should."

Sandaime then spoke again, "Well, I must get going and get started on this paperwork. You are free to do as you want for now. I would recommend you say goodbye to your friends, as you are no longer in their class, and will be going on a very long mission outside of the village. Spend time with your families as well. I will send for you when everything is complete and your sensei is ready to meet with you."

With that said, the Sandaime bid his farewell and took his leave, making his way back towards his office. The genin trio stayed there for a moment, Naruto attaching the sheath of his sword to his waist to carry it around. Ino spoke up, "So what do we do now?"

Naruto and Sakura looked thoughtful for a few moments. Naruto was about to ask his pink haired teammate to a date, but was stopped when Sakura came to a decision. She quickly went back into her fangirl act, "Well, I'm going to go say goodbye to everyone in class, especially Sasuke-kun. We're leaving on a long mission, I want to try and make sure he doesn't forget me."

Ino looked at her and stuck her tongue out, "Well, I don't think it would be possible for him to forget such a large forehead. I bet it even gives him nightmares. I'm going to say goodbye to him, too. I already know he wont forget about me."

The pinkette's eyebrows twitched, "Shut up piggy. Who would want to remember someone like you?"

"Sasuke-kun would, of course." Ino replied, brushing a loose strand of hair out of her face, "Nobody could ever forget someone as beautiful as me."

Naruto just looked at them, rolled his eyes and sighed. Hopefully he wouldn't have to deal with the fangirling throughout the entire mission. One can dream, right? "You two have fun with the teme. I'm going to go say bye to Iruka-sensei and all the guys." With that said, Naruto walked back towards the classroom, both girls following after him, trying to be the first to get to their precious Sasuke-kun.

* * *

AN: Well, now you know the team! Also, I know I'm probably going to get complaints like "Sakura doesn't have a crush on Naruto!" Well, in this story she DOES. That's the beauty of fiction.

And yes, I did something very cliche. I gave Naruto a sword. Don't worry, his sword isn't the end all be all sword of uberness that has moving eyes that shoots laser beams and can move on it's own. The only thing special about it really, is the blade. The only reason I even made the blade out of diamond is because of it's previous owner. He was the freaken Kyuubi! Of course he's going to have nice stuff.


	4. The Team

Disclaimer: Are these things really needed? Sigh Whatever, I don't own Naruto, k? So don't send your lawyers after me!

* * *

It was now early morning in the village of Konoha. All around villagers were buzzing around the streets, doing their daily tasks of shopping and working at their jobs. Ninja could be seen running across the rooftops making their way to the administration building, ready to pick up their missions for the day.

Two fresh ninjas could be seen on one rooftop. This roof was owned by the Haruno family, and it became the usual hangout spot for the group of secret friends.

Naruto was busying himself with his equipment. He took his sensei's lecture from the previous day to heart. He knew his equipment was in terrible shape, but there wasn't much he could do about it. He couldn't afford new gear yet, so the best he could do was sharpen and polish them, keeping them in the best condition he could.

Sakura was busy watching him, deep in thought about their immediate future. There was many things she loved about this new team. The main reason she had to love, was that she was on the team with her crush. What more could she ask for?

"Ne, Naruto?"

Upon hearing his name being called from an angel, he stopped his polishing of a kunai and looked towards the one who called him, "Yeah, Sakura-chan?"

She brushed a bit of hair away that made it's way onto her face and pointed at the kunai he was polishing, "You didn't do it right. The left edge still looks a bit dull."

Naruto looked back over at the kunai in his hand and studied it in detail. He didn't notice anything really wrong with it, but he decided to test it anyways. Sakura always was the smarter one.

He ran his finger over the left edge of the blade, and noticed that it was indeed a bit too dull to be of much use, "You're right, but how do I make it sharper than this?"

The pinkette let out a loud sigh, "Do you even bother to pay attention in class? Iruka-sensei only explained it like, 40 times you baka!"

Naruto looked back over at her, "I do pay attention! It's not my fault that Iruka-sensei doesn't explain it right!"

Sakura shook her head at him and walked over to him. She went behind him and leaned onto his back, placing her weight onto him. She grabbed his hands and guided them to the angle that he was supposed to use when sharpening, "When you do it, hold it like this. If you do it any other way, it either will be too dull, or you'll just wear down the blade to nothing."

He nodded, slightly blushing at the contact he was receiving. She then proceeded to guide his hands over to the nearby well-oiled sharpening stone. She slowly dragged the blade at the specific angle until she believed he took the hint. She released his hands and watched carefully as he continued the sharpening, not bothering to release him completely. She was enjoying being so close to him.

"Hey, it's not so hard, see? You just have to keep it at that angle and you'll be fine."

Naruto nodded, still paying close attention both to the kunai he was sharpening and the feel of his crush on his back. When he finished a few moments later, he ran his finger over the edge of the kunai again and noticed that it was nearly perfect in it's sharpness. "Thanks, Sakura-chan! I don't know what I'd do without ya."

Sakura chuckled as she made her way back to her feet, "You'd be hopeless, that's for sure."

"Hey! I'm not that bad, am I?"

The pinkette refused to answer, instead she made her way back to the nearby chair she had. She sat down and took a sip of her water, as the sun was bearing down on her and making her a bit dehydrated. She faintly heard Naruto sigh at her lack of response before she watched him sharpen his last kunai.

She grinned mischievously when a thought hit her, "Hey, Naruto?"

"Hmm?"

"Want some more practice?"

Naruto laughed, "Sure thing, Sakura-chan. Just give 'em here."

She smiled and pulled out a couple of kunai she had in her pouch and tossed them over to him, "Thanks!"

He chuckled, "So, Sakura-chan. What do you think about being on a team with me?"

Sakura placed a finger on her chin in a thinking position for a moment, "Do I really have to answer that?"

Naruto nodded, "Yes you do! Cmon! It can't be that bad, can it?"

"Well...I like it, actually."

"And whys that?"

"I can be with my best friend, and my only other close friend on the same team. I get to spend a lot more time with them, and we don't have to worry about people thinking anything about us."

Naruto paused his sharpening for a moment and frowned, "Yeah, I guess. It'll be really nice to hang out with you without having to try and hide, ya know?"

Sakura stared at his frown for a few moments before sighing sadly, "Yeah, it will be. When we come back, we won't hide anymore, k? You're my best friend, I hate hiding it just as much as you do."

Naruto's frown turned into a slight smile before he resumed his sharpening. He dabbed a little more honing oil onto the sharpening stone before finishing his task appointed to him by his crush. It was a few minutes before they spoke again.

"Can you pass me my glass of water, Sakura-chan? Don't wanna get up till I finish this."

Sakura nodded and got up and brought him his glass of water, he thanked her before she sat down beside him. She picked up one of her kunai that he finished sharpening and examined it, "You're doing it pretty well, you caught on quick. Good job."

"Heh, thanks Sakura-chan!" Naruto responded happily, finishing the last kunai he had. He quickly ran his rag over the blade to clean off the oil and polish it before examining his work. Upon finding that it was satisfactory, he gathered up all of Sakura's equipment and handed it to her, "All done!"

"Thanks again, Naruto."

Naruto nodded his response quietly while gathering his weapons and placing them into their respective pouches. As he was about to get up and clean the sharpening stone, the roof door opened up revealing Sakura's mother.

"Sakura, Naruto-kun. I thought you guys would be hungry, so I brought you some lunch." the elder Haruno explained as she placed down two cups of instant ramen. Needless to say Naruto's mouth instantly watered in anticipation. He quickly raced to clean up his mess, knowing the sooner he finished, the sooner he could dig into his lunch.

Sakura and her mother just watched Naruto clean in amusement. Sakura turned to her mother after a light chuckle, "You shouldn't encourage him, you know. He eats that stuff enough as it is."

The elder Haruno laughed briefly, "I know, I know, but he deserved it today. I saw him sharpening your stuff. Think of it as a thank you." She then looked over to her daughter and winked, "You two looked cute like that earlier."

"Mom!"

Her only response was to chuckle at her daughter's reaction, "Don't worry dear, he's too busy to have heard me say anything."

Sakura brushed a hand through her hair and sighed exasperatedly, "I know, just don't do it again!"

"Sure, sure, whatever you say." Sakuras mother replied while waving her hands dismissively before turning to Naruto, "Enjoy your lunch, Naruto-kun. I have some cleaning to do inside, so I'll see you two later."

"Bye Haruno-san!"

"See you later, Mom!"

As the older Haruno left the scene, Naruto finished cleaning and put away the sharpening stone and oil before he made his way over to the table which the ramen was set upon. He quickly sat down next to Sakura and opened up the chopsticks and dug into his cup of ramen vigorously.

Sakura sighed at the scene, "Manners, Naruto. You remember when you did that last time, don't you?"

Naruto paused in his eating, noodles halfway to his mouth. He gulped then proceeded to eat politely. He didn't want to relive the punishment he received last time he was impolite around Sakura. A week without ramen. He shuddered at the thought.

Satisfied that her job was done, Sakura broke open her chopsticks and ate her lunch quietly. When Naruto finished, he spoke the question he was thinking about, "So when do you think we'll meet our sensei and go on our mission, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura shook her head, swallowing the noodles she had in her mouth before replying, "Probably soon. I mean, you have people after you, right? So it only makes sense that they would get us out of here as soon as they could."

Naruto sighed sadly, reliving the attack he had on his life earlier. He was broken out of his thoughts by Sakura, "What's wrong, Naruto?"

"Nothing, was just thinkin about somethin'." he replied, his obviously fake smile plastered onto his face. Sakura just shook her head. She knew well enough that if he didn't want to explain something, he wasn't going to until he was ready.

Just as they finished their ramen, a knock could be faintly heard, "I wonder who that is?"

Sakura picked up their empty ramen cups and chopsticks and took them over to the trashcan, "Probably one of mom's friends. They usually come over about this time of day."

Before anything else could be said, the doorway opened once again, this time to reveal an ANBU member dressed in the usual black robe, "Haruno-san, Uzumaki-san. Your presence has been requested by the Hokage."

The two genin looked at each other and smiled, knowing that their team must be ready. They both nodded to the ANBU and he lead them back downstairs into the house, which is where the elder Haruno was waiting. "Are we ready to go now?"

The two genin and the older Haruno nodded, before following the ANBU out the door and towards the administration building.

* * *

Upon arriving at the waiting room outside the Hokage's office, the group was greeted by Yamanaka Inoichi and his daughter, who were waiting patiently to be called into the office. The ANBU broke off from the group and made his way to the office, while the others made their way to Yamanakas.

"Hey piggy!" exclaimed Sakura in a very cheerful mood.

Ino looked over at her and stuck her tongue out, "Don't call me piggy, forehead!"

"Hey, hey! Can't we all just get along?!" questioned Naruto, unusually loud.

Both girls pointed at one another and yelled out at the same time, "Not with her!" which made everyone else present sigh in exasperation.

They didn't have time to argue much longer, as the Hokage's secretary came over to them and announced that the Hokage was waiting to see them now. They each got up and made their way over to the office to be greeted by the Hokage and another kunoichi. She had dark purple hair tied up behind her head, while wearing a very skimpy outfit consisting of fishnet clothing and a brown miniskirt. The only saving grace she had was that she was mostly covered up by her over sized brown trench coat.

Everyone bowed politely in greeting, except Naruto, who just yelled out his usual greeting of "Ojisan!" to the Hokage before they each took one of the seats available in the room.

The Sandaime gave them a moment to get comfortable. He lit his pipe and took a puff before beginning the meeting, "Thank you all for coming. We have a few things to discuss about your mission before you begin."

He paused for a moment, then pointed towards the other elder kunoichi of the room, "This is Mitarashi Anko, your jounin sensei."

Anko nodded her head in greeting, before giving an unusually polite greeting which left the two elder male ninja gaping in surprise, "Nice to meet you all."

The Hokage quickly shoved off his surprise, "Now, we have much to discuss." He pulled a scroll labeled with the letter 'A' off of his desk and unrolled it before beginning, "This scroll contains all of the details of this mission you need to know, but I will go over a few of them so your parents will have an idea of what is going on."

He scanned over the scroll quickly as if to get an idea of what to discuss before beginning, "The first thing you will need to know is that this mission is long term. You will be gone for at least a year, but this time may be extended if the situation requires it."

"Where will we be staying at, since we can't stay here?" questioned the ever curious Ino.

"I was getting to that," The Hokage began, taking a puff of smoke from his pipe than continued, "I have personally given you the perfect location. My family owns a very large piece of land in southern fire country, and on it sits a very nice house. You will be staying there. Please keep it in good condition for me, I'd hate to have a destroyed home." He finished, looking towards the blond haired genin, who just chuckled a little bit.

"I promise, Ojisan! I won't break a thing!"

"I'll make sure of it. He won't want to be near me if he does." threatened the purple haired kunoichi, who was grinning mischievously at the thoughts of the torture she could put him through if he did. All three genin visibly cringed, especially the male of the group, at the grin she was wearing.

Inoichi laughed slightly before looking towards Anko, "Please don't kill them, alright?"

Anko crossed her arms over her chest and pouted cutely, "You ruin all of the fun!"

The Elder Haruno looked over at the still cringing Naruto, "Plus, I don't think you will need to torture Naruto-kun any. He will be living with you three girls, after all. I may be a woman myself, but even I know that it won't be easy."

Inoichi laughed heartily at the terrified look on Narutos face, "I didn't even think of that. Naruto, take some advice from me, k? Don't make my daughter angry. We're getting you out of the village to keep you alive, if you make her angry, I believe we will have to call this mission a failure."

Everyone laughed at that except the still terrified and now shaking blond haired boy. The Hokage stopped laughing, "Alright, alright. I don't think we should scare him anymore. We don't want him to think he would be in better hands with the assassins, now would we?"

"Anyways, let us continue." The Hokage began, taking yet another puff from his ever present pipe, "Money will be issued to each of you based on an A-ranked mission. You can use that money for whatever you wish, but I would suggest using it to buy supplies. Anko will be receiving extra pay for food and other necessary expenses."

Everyone nodded their acceptance at the plan regarding money, so he continued, "I know that both Inoichi and yourself, Haruno-san are wondering this. There will be a way of contacting them. If you would like to send them a letter, just give it to me and I will send it to them. We are using our summons to make the journey back and forth to Konoha to give them any supplies that we can give them."

The Elder Haruno sighed in relief, she was glad that she would be able to contact her daughter. She then spoke the next question that she wanted an answer to, "Hokage-sama. Will there be any visits from them?"

The Hokage thought for a brief moment before answering, "Well, for them to visit Konoha, it would depend on the situation. If I am able to calm down his assassins, then I can allow them to come here to visit, but if not, then I don't think that would be possible. On the other hand, I may be able to allow visitations to them, particularly during holidays. I know you would like to spend time with your family members then, so I believe I could allow it. We'll just have to arrange it ahead of time."

The older Haruno nodded her acceptance of the answer, glad she is also able to visit her daughter at least on the holidays. It would get rather lonely at her house around that time if she couldn't.

"Is there anything else you would like to know before I dismiss you to get ready for the mission?"

Everyone thought for a moment, before Inoichi spoke up, "Yes, there is. Anko, this is a training mission, so what do you plan on training them in?"

Anko pulled out their folders from her trench coat before responding, "Honestly? I have no idea. I haven't had much time yet to look through the folders very well, and I haven't seen them in action myself, so I don't know yet. I'll train them in what I feel is best for them and the team, I believe."

"Alright, just try not to train them too hard, k? I'd like it if they had some personal time to enjoy life, they are still growing up, after all."

"Yeah, yeah, I won't go too overboard. I know how it is to be trained like that, so don't worry." Anko responded back, knowing very well from her training with Orochimaru that losing every ounce of your personal life is horrible.

"Alright, now that everything is settled, you are dismissed. Anko, is there anything you would like to tell to your students before dismissing them?"

Anko thought for a very brief moment, "Not really. I'm gonna be following you guys home and we're going to help each other pack everything we need."

Sakura questioned her sensei, "How are we gonna be able to fit everything though? I have a lot of stuff I need, it will be a lot to carry."

Anko chuckled, "That's right, academy students aren't trained in sealing. Don't worry, I'll be sealing everything inside of a scroll. Much easier to carry." She then pulled out one of her larger scrolls, "Like this one. I already have all of my stuff in this."

All of the genin nodded and rose from their seats, their parents following. The Hokage looked over to them, "Very well, you are dismissed. Good luck on your mission, and train hard. I expect each of you will be able to become great shinobi one day."

Everyone bowed politely towards the Hokage before leaving the room and grouping up outside. When Anko arrived, she spoke, "Alright! So who's the first target?"

"First target? What do you mean, sensei?" questioned Ino.

"I mean who's house is the closest? We gotta get packin! We're leavin early tonight!"

Inoichi spoke for the group, "Our house is the closest from here, and then would be the Haruno's. Naruto lives the furthest away, I believe."

"Alright then, let's get a move on!"

* * *

The trip to the Yamanaka household was uneventful, mainly Anko fully introducing herself to her newfound team of genin. Each genin briefly introduced themselves to her, as they knew that she would learn everything she'd need to in their files. By the time they finished their introductions, they arrived at the flower shop.

Inoichi let them into the house and opened up his flower shop, while allowing his daughter to take control of the group and lead them to her room. Sakura's mother excused herself and made her way towards her own home, as she was hungry and needed to make herself some lunch.

The team arrived at the upstairs bedroom of one Yamanaka Ino and were barely surprised. The room was painted a dull white, a picture of Sasuke adorning one of the walls. The bed was fairly large, covered in a royal purple sheet, while the rest of her furniture was of a matching bedroom set.

"Alright, Ino. Gather up everything you want to take with you. Clothes, pictures, you know the drill. Just bring em to me and I'll seal them away. This scrolls a decent size, so we should be able to fit everything you want."

Ino nodded and first made her way over to the dresser on the far side of the room and began going through all of her clothes. She couldn't quite decide what to pack, so she decided to just pack everything. Surely they would have enough space to hold a bunch of clothes there, right?

"Hey forehead, help me out here to make this quicker."

Sakura bristled upon hearing the nickname, but complied and positioned herself between her sensei and her rival. "Why me, and not Naruto?"

Instead of responding Ino just handed Sakura a bunch of her panties. Sakura chuckled and handed them over to her sensei, "Oh, that'd be a good reason."

Naruto just stood quietly near the doorway of the room, not wanting to mess with anything. He did that once in his crush's room, and the outcome wasn't very favorable to him. Apparently girls kept a lot of stuff they would consider embarrassing if it went into a boy's hands.

The three kunoichi worked quickly, emptying the dresser completely of it's contents. Ino then made her way over to the closet and picked out all of her most favorite clothes and sent them towards Anko, who was busy sealing everything away. The closet took a little longer than the dresser, as Ino had a lot of clothes, but they still finished it in a short amount of time.

Ino moved on to her bathroom and packed her favorite towels and toiletry that she would need. Once finished with that, she scouted her room for anything she would want to take. She found her favorite picture of her Sasuke-kun and sent it packing, ignoring the snort that came from her sensei when she sealed it away. She ran around her room and double checked, making sure she had everything.

"That's everything, I think."

Anko finished up her sealing, and rolled the scroll back up and handed it to Ino, "Alright then. Don't lose this."

Ino nodded and they left the room, meeting Inoichi at the flower shop desk. "All packed, honey?"

Ino looked to her father, "Yep! All ready to go."

"That's good, didn't take as long as I thought it would." He began and then turned to Anko, "What time do you plan on leaving? It'd be nice if I could meet you at the gates before you leave."

Anko shrugged, "Probably around 5 we'll leave. The destination is a little ways away, so we'll have to travel in the dark, but that's fine. The earlier we leave the better."

Inoichi nodded and then turned to his daughter, "Alright honey, go help them pack and I'll meet you at the gates to see you off, alright?"

Ino nodded and hugged her father quickly before following the others away from the flower shop.

* * *

The short trip to the Haruno household was even quieter, with only a little small-talk going on in between the three genin. Anko was just whistling to herself for the entire trip. When asked why, her only response was a shrug and a short explanation that she liked the song.

When they arrived at the house, they were greeted by Sakura's mother, who had a cup of hot tea waiting for the group. They each thanked her and took the tea into Sakura's room and allowed her a moment to look around and think about what she would want to pack while they sipped their tea.

Upon deciding, Sakura made her way towards her closet first and picked out all of her clothes. The majority of which was her famous red dress with her family symbol, but there were a few fashion dresses that she would use on special occasions.

When she finished with that, she made her way over to her dresser and came up with a brilliant idea that could have hilarious results. She giggled inwardly and opened up the drawer that held her panties and her bras. Instead of calling out for her female friend, like Ino did, she called out her male team mate, "Naruto, can you come over here and help me for a moment?"

Ino looked at her like she grew another head, but she ignored it and handed Naruto a handful of her underwear. The reaction she received wasn't quite what she expected. The only sound she heard was a resounding thud, before everyone looked over and laughed. Hard.

Naruto was now laying down on the floor, with a couple of pairs of panties covering his face, while a bra happened to land on his chest.

Once they caught their breath from the laughter, Ino came over and helped Sakura pack everything away. Sakura finished quickly, the last pairs she packed were the ones that were lying on her crush's face.

While Sakura was busy running around the room gathering her favorite books, pictures, and other such belongings, Ino spent a moment to wake Naruto up from his little nap. When he woke up, he immediately blushed hard, which caused Ino to burst into laughter again.

Sakura finished a few minutes later, and as Ino did, she went to her bathroom and gathered her favorite toiletries and towels before packing them away.

When she encountered Naruto again, he was staring at her, a slight blush on his face while frowning. She just smiled innocently.

Upon finishing the sealing, and ensuring that they were done, Anko handed her the scroll as she did Ino, and everyone finished up their tea. They made their way out of the room, explaining to Sakura's mother on the way out where to meet them and when, before they made the trek towards Naruto's apartment.

* * *

The trip towards Naruto's humble abode was far more eventful than the others.

The two genin kunoichi spent most of their time making fun of the way Naruto looked after he woke up from passing out. His facial expressions were absolutely priceless, and Sakura herself believed they were the cutest things she'd ever seen. Ino was busy trying to figure out the dreamy smile on Sakura's face, while Naruto had his head turned the other direction, trying to ignore them. In reality, though, he wasn't just trying to ignore them, he was trying to hide his blush. He couldn't get the feel of her panties out of his head.

Anko just continued whistling, though this time she also had one of her students folder out and was reading it while walking towards their destination.

As they made their way into the worst part of the town, the slums, the Ino spoke up, "You live in this area?"

Naruto turned to her and nodded sadly, "Yeah, It's all I can afford really."

Ino nodded slightly. She vaguely remembered Naruto explaining he was an orphan and the only money he had was from the monthly benefits he got from the government.

Naruto took the lead of the group and began leading them towards the part of the town that housed the apartments. They walked for a few minutes before they arrived outside of a small rundown apartment building, which looked all but abandoned.

"We're here." He explained while leading them towards the door on the first floor, the one in which he lived in.

He didn't even have to unlock the door, even going as far as not even needing to turn the door handle, which both girls noticed. Sakura spoke, as she knew that at least his door was fully functional. She had been to his house a few times, "What happened to your door?"

He spoke while leading them into the house, "Oh, that? I just haven't fixed it from last night yet."

Anko looked up from her folder and nodded. She had been briefed on what happened, it was the reason why their mission was rushed to today, instead of tomorrow.

"What happened last night, Naruto?" Sakura questioned again.

"Another attempt. Two of them this time," he explained then lead them towards the dining room, which held the most destruction. The dining room table was split in half and broken, lying on the floor. The chairs had some legs missing, while others were missing the entire backing. Everything was knocked off of the nearby counter top, spread across the floor. The back wall had a few chunks missing out of it, while one picture that was on the wall had it's glass shattered.

"This is the worst it's been. Took a while for the guards to arrive and stop em, you can see what happened."

Sakura and Anko shook their head sadly at the destruction, while Ino looked to be about in tears. She never quite understood the severity of the situation until now.

Naruto decided to change the subject, "Rooms this way." He explained while leading them further into the house, into the room, which was fairly clean.

While Anko pulled out a scroll and made herself comfortable on the floor, Naruto thought for a moment, deciding what he'd like to pack. He ran around to the bathroom, deciding to get that out of the way first. He gathered all of his toiletries and towels, just as the girls did. Handing them to Anko, he then went over to the closet he had and opened it.

The two younger kunoichi both gasped in disgust when they saw it's contents. The entire closet was full of orange jumpsuits. Ino was about to cry to the fashion gods and pray for his forgiveness, but was stopped when Naruto broke her out of her thoughts, "Hey! What's wrong with my clothes?!"

Sakura scoffed, and pointed to the closet, "That's...just way too much orange. I think I'm gonna go blind!"

Ino nodded furiously, agreeing with her team mate while Anko chuckled, "Hey, cmon, it's not that bad. The brat just likes to be different, what's so wrong with that?"

"What's wrong?! Are you blind! It's...It's...ugly!" Ino exclaimed, nearly yelling at the top of her voice.

"Hey! It's not ugly!"

"Yes it is!"

"No it's not!"

Sakura sighed, the scene looked too much like her arguments with Ino, "Alright you two, break it up. First, it's not completely ugly, but it's still ugly. You need to have some stuff that's not orange, at least, Naruto."

Naruto hmph'd and began pulling the clothes out of the closet and handing them to the nearby Anko, who just sealed them without words. She was enjoying the interaction between her brats already.

Ino still looked disgusted at the clothing choice, but kept it to herself. Instead she wandered around the room and spotted something that made her gasp is surprise. This was something she wasn't expecting to see, like, ever.

Right in front of her, on Naruto's nightstand, was a picture of himself, hugging the person she least expected. Sakura. Both of them had content smiles on their faces, which were turned to the camera. The picture, from what Ino could tell, looked to have been taken in Sakura's room.

Ino poked Sakura hard, trying to get her attention. Words were evading her at the moment. When Sakura finally caved into the vicious poking, she turned to Ino, who just whipped out her arm and pointed it at the picture, her mouth still gaping in surprise.

Sakura blushed slightly and chuckled, "Um. Explain later?"

Ino nodded, recovering herself from shock, and watched as Naruto finished packing his clothes that were in the closet. He made his way to the small dresser nearby and gathered everything out of there quickly, as there wasn't much in the dresser. It contained mostly boxers.

When he finished that, he looked around the room and went and grabbed everything he saw that was precious to him, the picture of Sakura and himself included. Once all of that was packed safely away, he looked around the house for a few minutes before coming back into the room to explain that everything was packed.

Anko finished the sealing, still slightly smiling inside at the picture she saw. She knew Naruto had very little precious people. She was glad that one of his most precious happened to be on a team with him. She rolled the scroll up and handed it to him, just as she did for the others.

She looked over at the clock on the wall before explaining, "Alright, now that we're all packed, let's go grab a bite to eat. I'm starving; had to skip lunch for one of those boring damn meetings."

"Ramen?!" Exclaimed Naruto, only to receive a smack on the head from the pinkette who was standing near him, "No way, you had that earlier."

Ino was wondering how she knew that, but dismissed the question when Anko spoke up, "Nah, let's go get some dango, my favorite food in the entire world! My treat, let's go."

The three genin nodded and followed Anko out of the door and towards her favorite restaurant, which served the best dango in the village.

Unfortunately for her, they also served ramen.

* * *

The squad quickly ate at the restaurant, and Anko was silently regretting the offer of it being her treat. She didn't quite know the experience of treating Naruto to ramen. Now she understood.

While the three girls had a couple of servings of the sweet dango, Naruto had a dozen bowls of multiple flavors of his favorite ramen.

Naruto had been on the receiving end of quite a few hard smacks from each of the girls due to his impolite way of eating, and learned his lesson around the sixth bowl, where he finally calmed down and ate with manners. That didn't stop him from filling up on the food of the gods as he called it, which caused Anko to silently weep for her wallet. She had also made a mental note that she would probably have to ask for a raise in the funding they would be receiving for food.

Ino was slightly horrified at how much he could eat, especially because, even with eating that much, he still held a very fit figure. She was slightly envious.

Sakura just shrugged it off for the most part. His ramen eating habits had become the norm quite some time ago.

Presently the three were gathered outside of the restaurant, stretching to prepare for their long journey that was ahead of them.

Anko looked over at the clock inside of the restaurant before looking over to her team, "Alright brats, time to get moving to the gates. We don't want to be late. Traveling in the dark is bad enough, so I'd rather leave as early as we can."

They each nodded, so she turned and lead them towards the village's south gate, where they were scheduled to meet their parents in around 20 minutes.

They made it there fairly quickly, which caused them to be early. Each made themselves comfortable on the ground next to the wall of the gate and leaned on it. Naruto just closed his eyes while waiting, trying his best to be patient. He knew the girls wouldn't like an outburst from him, and as he felt earlier, the girls could pack quite a punch.

They didn't have to wait too long, as Sakura's mother could be seen making her way casually towards the gates. Before she could arrive, Ino's father could be seen hopping from rooftop to rooftop behind the elder Haruno. When he arrived next to her, he jumped towards the ground and began to walk with her. It would only be a few short moments before they arrived at the gate.

When the two parents arrived, they moved over to their daughters and gave them a long hug, as they each knew it would be a while before they would see their children again. Both girls were slightly embarrassed by the attention, but they dismissed it knowing it was only Naruto and their sensei who would be watching.

While they were stuck in death grip hugs, Anko moved towards the blond haired genin, "Bleh, mushy family stuff."

Naruto smiled slightly, understanding that she was trying to cheer him up. He had been a little sad at the thought of having no family to wish him well on his mission, or to give a farewell to. "Yeah, too mushy for me."

Apparently the older Haruno had overhead his little speech and waved him over, letting her daughter go in the process. When Naruto was the appropriate distance, she grabbed him and gave him a hug also, which made her daughter smile. "Too mushy for you, eh? Well to bad there, Naruto-kun. Now you have to deal with it."

Naruto chuckled, "Yeah, yeah. Thank you, Haruno-san!"

Sakura's mother smiled, and looked over to her daughter, who was still smiling at the scene. She looked back to Naruto who was still in her arms. She released him and motioned her head towards her daughter, "Take care of her for me, will you?"

"Of course! You know I'd never let anything happen to her!"

She smiled, "I know, I trust you. Good luck on your mission, and train hard, okay? I want you to be strong by the time you come back."

Naruto nodded, "You bet!"

By this time, Inoichi and his daughter had also joined the group. The male Yamanaka looked over towards Naruto, "Take care of her, too. I don't think she'd need it, though. She's a tough one."

Ino playfully smacked her father on the shoulder, "Of course I'm tough! I can definitely take care of myself!"

Everyone chuckled, and Inoichi continued, "Also, good luck there Naruto, you're going to need it. I wasn't kidding earlier when I said my daughter can be a handful, you're in for it."

Naruto nervously gulped slightly, but nodded, "I'll be good, don't worry. I just hope to come back in one piece."

Inoichi gave Naruto a slight pat on the back before turning to Anko, "So you guys ready to go now?"

Anko stopped leaning on the wall behind her and nodded, "Yea, we should probably get going now so we don't arrive too late."

The parents turned to their children again and spoke, "You be good for her, okay? Train hard, and come back safely for us, alright?"

Upon receiving more nods of agreement, they gave each of the genin quick hugs or pats on the back before the newfound team headed off in the direction of their new temporary home.

* * *

AN: Yeah, I tried to include some fluff and comedy in this chapter. How'd I do with it?

Anyways, got a review asking about the sword. I'll paraphrase my response to it for everyone.

No, I don't believe nor plan on giving it any special powers such as chakra blasts and waves. (Think Inuyasha's wind scar, etc.)

I MIGHT, strong emphasis on the word might, give it a special ability of some sort. I'll only do that if I can find a decent way of balancing it and if it would make sense with the story. For now, just think of the ninjato as a very expensive sword.

Oh, and FYI: For those who don't know what a ninjato is. It's basically a slightly curved short sword. The blade is usually around 2 feet in length, but what makes it different than a wakizashi is that the grip on the blade is larger. It's the size that would normally be on a katana. The reason for this? It fooled the enemy into thinking the blade would take longer to draw from the sheath. (The sheath was also usually of katana size.)

Anyways, thank you to everyone who reviewed/favorited/added the story to their alerts. I'm glad that there are some of you that have been enjoying it so far.


	5. The House

Disclaimer: I can't seem to think of anything witty, so I'll just flat out say it: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

The trip to the teams new location was fairly quick. They only had to stop once, for a quick breather, as the genin of the group were not used to traveling such distances. They also weren't as physically fit as they should be, which lead Anko to believe that physical training might have to be their focus for a while. Other than the one short break, the only other times they stopped were to check their surroundings and make sure no one was following. The mission would be a failure if everyone knew of Naruto's location.

Once they arrived at the clearing, Anko looked up at the moon in the sky, and using her training, was able to determine that it was around 10 at night. Due to it being dark, not much of their location could be seen.

The land surrounding the house was fairly large, around 6 acres of clear land. With only a few trees scattered about across it, there would be plenty of space for any training Anko could think of. The trees themselves would come in handy as well.

Behind the house a bit lied a medium sized lake, of which the moonlight was reflected on the water. It was surely a beautiful scene, one the girls were overjoyed at being able to witness.

The house itself was large. Very large. It was big enough to be considered all of their homes in the village combined, so it was enough to say, they would be living fairly comfortably. The gigantic house was very modern in design, but held a traditional style roof. It's white color looked weathered and aged, as if it hadn't been painted in a while.

Sitting beside the house was a small fenced in garden. Multiple colors of wild flowers encircled a very large cherry blossom tree, which just added to the beauty of the land.

Sakura was the first to break out of their state of awe, "This place is beautiful. Are we really going to be living here?"

Everyone broke out of their thoughts and Anko nodded, "Yeah. Did you really expect something less? I mean, come on, the Hokage himself owns this place."

Ino looked over to the group beside her, "I bet the inside is even better."

"Well, what are we waiting for then?!" replied Anko as she pulled out the mission briefing she was given by the Hokage. She unrolled the scroll completely and at the bottom was a small seal. After concentrating some chakra onto the palm of her hand and placing it on the seal, a key popped into existence.

After she put the scroll away, she motioned for her group to follow and they made their way inside of the house.

"I can't see a thing!" Cried Ino, "It's too dark in here."

"What, did you expect it to be nice and bright? It's late at night!" responded Anko, who was searching for a light switch. Not succeeding after a few seconds she growled in irritation, "Hey brats, make yourself useful and help me find the light switch so we can see what the hell we're doing."

Everyone followed her orders and began feeling around the room for a light switch that did not want to be found.

Only a few moments after the search began, a hand was placed somewhere it shouldn't have been, but before it was able to be removed, the lights flickered on, temporarily blinding everyone.

It wasn't long before a loud smack was heard, and Naruto was laying on the ground with a red cheek. "What the hell did I do to deserve that?"

Ino looked flustered and pointed at him accusingly, "You...you pervert! I never said you could touch me there!"

Sakura looked at her, not quite understanding what was wrong, "Where'd he touch you?"

Ino blushed even more, which shouldn't have been possible and pointed to her chest. Sakura giggled a little bit, while Naruto blushed and spoke up, "So _that_'s what was so soft."

Ino looked ready to pound on him some more, but Anko put a stop to it, "Alright Ino, as much as I'd like to watch you beat him to a pulp, I'm sure he didn't mean it. None of us could see what we were doing."

The pale blond haired genin took a few moments to calm down before she crossed her arms across her chest and looked at the other blond, "Just don't do that again!"

The blue eyed boy nodded furiously, which told Ino that he learned his lesson. Once the chaos was over with, they made their way away from the door and began to explore the house.

The first thing they came to was a very large living room. It contained two very comfortable looking sofas, which were positioned perpendicular to each other. In between the two couches lied a very large and traditionally decorated rug, which upon it sat a medium sized coffee table. The fireplace on the far wall was made out of a red brick and looked like it was used many times over, if the scorch marks were any indication. On the wall next to the fireplace sat a big screen T.V. which boggled the group, as they wouldn't get any channels this far away from civilization, but they could watch movies.

The living room lead into a large dining room area, where a very large circular table sat. It was made out of a dark wood, with matching chairs. A few pictures of Konoha and other notable areas in Fire country were hung across the walls in this room.

Through the doorway in the dining room was the kitchen. It was fairly large, with enough cabinetry to hold enough food to feed an army. Anko liked that, as they wouldn't need to go shopping as often. Naruto just dreamt about the amount of instant ramen those cabinets could hold.

The kitchen had very modern appliances, though they were in need of cleaning, just like the rest of the house. When the group looked through the cabinets, they realized that they didn't need to have to buy much in terms of equipment. The kitchen was stocked full of any pots and pans they could put to use, enough utensils for that previously mentioned army, and any other accessories they would ever need.

Once through with the kitchen the group moved on to the next room, which wasn't much. It was a room used for storage, and it could definitely store a lot. The room was nearly the size of the living room. All across it's walls were extra cabinets and shelves, with a few tables scattered throughout the room.

Once they were through browsing that room, they moved to the nearby staircase and made their way upstairs and found the living quarters of the house. The house had 4 bedrooms, and 1 master bedroom. The four bedrooms were equivalent in design. They each were painted an off white color, and had a double sized bed with a floral bedspread. The furniture, which included a dresser, a nightstand, and a desk, were of a fairly large size and matched as a complete set. Ino happened to like the amount of closet space the rooms had.

The master bedroom was a little different. Where the other bedrooms had double sized beds, the master bedroom had a king sized bed. In the master bedroom there was also multiple dressers, that were a little bit larger than their counterparts. What really set the master bedroom apart was it's large walk in closet and it's own private bathroom.

The master bath was larger than the other bathroom in the house, and held a more elegant design. Where the guest bathroom only had one sink which sat upon a small counter top, the master bath had two sinks which sat upon a counter top that spanned the greater part of the large bathroom. Each bathroom had a fairly large shower, both with floral shower curtains.

The four man group decided that their exploration was over, so they headed back downstairs and met up in the kitchen.

"Alright, we got some stuff to do before we make ourselves comfortable." Anko started and pointed to Naruto, "You can do kage bunshin, right? Well, go find yourself some cleaning supplies and get to cleaning. I want this entire house spotless. Got it, brat?"

Naruto nodded and went off to search the storage room for stuff he could use to clean with.

"And you," Anko stated, this time pointing to the other blond of the group, "Go wash all of the utensils and cooking supplies. It's probably been years since they've been used, so it's no doubt that they are dirty as hell."

Ino reluctantly nodded and made her way to the kitchen. She hated doing dishes of any kind, but had to follow her sensei's orders.

"And you pinky," Anko said, while amusedly watching Sakura's eyebrow twitch, "Go clean the bathrooms. They looked a little dirty. If either of them go looking for me, tell them I went to go get us some food, got it? I'll be back shortly."

Sakura nodded, and both girls parted ways heading towards their destinations.

* * *

It took around an hour to finish cleaning the entire house. By the time it was finished, though, the entire house from top to bottom was completely spotless, thanks to the help of 50 kage bunshins. Naruto also happened to be experienced in cleaning, having lived alone for all of those years, so his experience helped insure that his sensei would be satisfied with the results.

While the genin were cleaning, Anko was busy preparing a simple fish dinner for them. It had been a while since they last ate, so she went out back to the lake and went fishing a bit. After coming back and preparing them, she set them to cook and wandered around the house making sure the genin were doing their tasks properly.

When the food was done cooking, and the house was thoroughly cleaned, they all met up in the dining room and sat down to eat their baked fish. Anko had a pile of three folders sitting beside her while she ate, and was reading through the last one she had yet to read.

"So, Ino. Says here that you know Shintenshin no jutsu. How good are you with it?"

Ino paused in her eating and looked at her sensei, "Um. I'm not too bad, but I haven't mastered it yet. My father can take over the other's body almost instantly, it takes me a few seconds to travel to their body."

Anko nodded and went back to eating, still reading through the folder. She spoke up a moment later, "Also says your taijutsu isn't that bad, but your strength is crap. That's something we're gonna need to work on, I'd think."

The blond girl in question nodded so Anko continued, "To be honest, I don't really know yet what I want to do with you. You're pretty much equal in every respect, so it's a matter of deciding which path you want to follow. Once you pick, we can beef you up in that area pretty quickly I think."

Ino finished her first fish and spoke, "Well, I've always liked jutsus. It just seems to be natural to me is how I'd describe it. I don't really like genjutsu too much, though."

Anko nodded and also finished her first fish before opening the next folder and went back to eating while reading. It was a few moments before she spoke, while looking over towards Naruto, "So brat, says here you have a lot of chakra. How much do you have exactly?"

Naruto swallowed his bite before responding, "A lot. Ojisan says I have more than the Kyuubi did. He told you about what happened, right?"

Anko nodded, knowing he was talking about the merge, then continued, "That could be a good thing and a bad thing. It's good to have a lot of chakra, but I have a feeling your chakra control is horrible. Definitely going to set ya back, so we'll definitely have to work hard on that."

Anko took a bite of her fish before continuing, "With all of that chakra, and that special sword you have, I'd say you'd make a good tank."

Naruto's brows furrowed in confusion, "Tank?"

Anko sighed, "A tank tries to keep the enemy focused on them. You can use that fancy sword of yours to block their attacks if you learn how to use it right, and with all of that chakra, you can keep a constant supply of kage bunshins up so the real you never gets hit. Keeps the enemy busy while you kick their ass."

"Sounds cool! I think I can do that!" Naruto responded cheerfully before finishing up his fish.

"Heh, yeah, cool. Anyways, even though you have all of that chakra, I don't think you'd be much for ninjutsu or especially genjutsu. Not unless you can miraculously get a lot better at controlling your chakra. No doubt we'd have to teach you high chakra jutsus that don't require as much control for now, at least."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Anko flipping through the other folder, reading it thoroughly. She finished the last of her fish and wiped her mouth before speaking to the final genin, "Sakura, you have the complete opposite problems of Naruto."

"Whatcha mean, sensei?"

"I mean you have nearly perfect chakra control this says, but you have next to no chakra. We're definitely going to be spending a lot of time with you building up your chakra reserves. If we don't you'll go useless in battle fairly quickly."

Sakura nodded and looked over at her sensei, "What do you think I could become good at?"

Anko thought for a few moments, her head resting on her hands, "Well, theres a lot of things you could do well at if you go that path. If you build up your chakra reserves enough, you'd be great at ninjutsu since you won't waste much chakra, and according to the file you had the best grades in the class, so you're obviously smart enough to use the jutsus properly."

Anko shook her head and finished, "To be honest, though, you don't strike me as a ninjutsu type."

Sakura looked at her sensei curiously, "Why do you think that?"

The purple haired kunoichi just shrugged, "Eh, you just don't."

Sakura sighed. That was a great answer. "What do you think I'd be good at then?"

Anko reread through parts of the file while drumming her fingers on the table before she responded, "Well, according to this your taijutsu isn't that great. So that might not be for you, I guess. Genjutsu might work with you, I wouldn't be able to tell yet since they don't teach you any genjutsu in the academy. I'll teach ya one if ya want and we'll see how it works out."

Sakura nodded, "Sounds good."

Anko thought for a few moments, "Well, there is one other thing you might be good at, but kami knows how I'll teach it to ya."

Sakura looked at her, "And what's that?"

"Medical jutsu. I don't know any, though, so we'd have to figure out a way for you to learn it properly. It'd be for the best, though. If Ino goes down the path of jutsus, and Naruto becomes the tank, we'd need a med nin. It'd balance it out."

Sakura looked thoughtful, in the classic thinking pose, "I always did like to help people, so I'd love to become a medic. What do they do for fighting, though?"

Anko shrugged, "They don't fight, last I checked. You don't want the medic to get hurt, so they usually avoid the fight while still helping their teammates. Basically all they do is support. There is one medic though, you probably heard of her, Tsunade."

"The Tsunade? As in the best medic nin in all of Konoha? One of the legendary sannin?" questioned Ino. Her father was always talking about the sannin, since two of them were worth looking up to.

Anko nodded, "Yep, that's her. She's the only medic nin I know of that has her own fighting style. Don't know how she does it exactly, but she has some super strength. Man do her punches hurt." Anko finished, while slightly cringing at the thought of being hit by one of her super punches.

"Anyways, we'll decide what paths you guys will follow tomorrow, right now lets just go over some things and get settled in."

Everyone nodded so she continued, "Theres a couple of things I'd like to point out to you guys. I told your parents that I wouldn't kill you in your training, that don't mean I'm going to go easy, either. I'm gonna work you guys hard. You each have a lot of potential in you, and I'm gonna make damn sure that we harness that, ya understand that part?"

When she noticed everyone agreed with her, she thought for a moment then continued, "Each of you are gonna have different responsibilities while living here. We'll figure them out when the time comes, but for now, I'll take care of the cooking. Naruto, you'll be in charge of keeping the house clean. Kami knows, with the kage bunshins you make, you won't have a problem." She then threw him a glare, "Just don't go searching through our private stuff when you're cleaning our rooms, got it?"

Naruto nodded furiously, the dangerous look in her eyes was a bit scary. There was a few moments in silence before Ino spoke up, "Um. What about us, sensei?"

Anko shrugged, "Haven't decided yet. But don't worry, you'll get somethin."

Anko got up from the table, and looked at Ino, "You already did the dishes earlier," She then pointed to Sakura, "You get to clean up our mess tonight."

Sakura nodded and got up and collected the dirty dishes and went into the kitchen to get started on her cleaning. Anko and the others went into the living room and Anko plopped down bonelessly on the couch, and Ino sat next to her, while Naruto went to the other couch. When Sakura rejoined the group and made herself comfortable next to Naruto, Anko spoke up.

"I've got a few ideas for you guys that I'd like to try, but first I need to test ya a bit. I need to see your skills for myself, so tomorrow that's what we're gonna be doin'. Then we'll see about how we're gonna train ya."

Ino, the ever curious blond, questioned her, "What ideas do you have?"

Anko just shook her head, "Not tellin'! You'll know if I'm gonna do them. One idea that I have, though, I hope we can do. If we can do that, you guys are gonna be amazing."

Everyone was curious and wanted to know the ideas, but Anko kept shrugging them off, refusing to answer. Instead she reached into her trench coat and pulled out a notebook, tearing three pieces of paper off, she handed one to each genin. She then tossed them each a pencil.

"I'm going shopping in the morning while I let you guys sleep in, so write down your favorite foods and anything you need me to get."

Everyone nodded and began thinking before writing down their lists. One list was pretty predictable, which was Naruto's, and one only had to guess what was the main thing written.

Anko sat patiently, looking around the room while they worked on their lists. She had many ideas in her head on how to train them, and was semi-anxious to begin. She's never taught a group before, so this was a learning experience for her as well.

When the genin finished and handed her the papers, she looked them over and nodded approvingly at two of the lists, and chuckled at the third. Naruto's list was made up of 75 percent ramen, of all different flavors. Yes, she was definitely going to have to ask for a raise in their food funding.

Putting the lists away back into her trench coat, she looked over at the half asleep genin, "Alright, I can tell you guys are getting tired, so let's finish getting set up. Everyone have their scrolls?"

Everyone nodded while pulling their own scrolls out. Anko nodded, "Alright then, any questions on how to use 'em?"

"All we do is focus some chakra onto our palms and place them on the seal right?" Anko nodded, so Ino finished, "Then I can do it no problem."

"Good. Go set up your rooms before you get some sleep. I'll see you guys in the morning."

Everyone nodded and sluggishly made their ways towards the upstairs hallway, when Sakura stopped them. "So who's room is who's? I know the master bedroom is going to be sensei's, so which do we get?"

Ino shrugged, "I'll take the one next to Anko-sensei's, I guess."

Sakura nodded, "I'll take the one across the hall, then."

Naruto looked around, "I'll take the one across from the bathroom, the one next to Sakura-chan's."

With that everyone separated and went towards their own rooms to get unpack and get settled before hitting the hay.

* * *

Naruto spent a great amount of time unpacking, and placing his clothes into organized drawers. He also placed his clothes neatly into the closet. While some wouldn't guess at first glance, Naruto was actually a very clean and organized person, or at least he tried to be. Most ninjas were that way, though, as if they were organized, they can finish things faster.

Naruto was the last person to be able to unpack his toiletries, and when he arrived at the bathroom he almost choked. There was pink, yellow, and purple _everywhere._ Even worse, one of the girls had already set up a very fragrant air freshener, the smell of which he could only associate with flowers. He sighed while shaking his head, obviously not happy to be stuck sharing a bathroom with two girls.

After trying to find some space to fit his shampoo and soap, he placed his towels on the only available towel rack and left the bathroom and tried to breathe again. The air freshener was just _too_ fragrant.

After making it back to the room, he checked through the scroll to find out what he missed, and noticed the only things left were the few tabletop items he'd had.

After unsealing and setting the alarm clock, he unsealed the last object in the scroll: The picture of Sakura and himself. He stared at the picture for what seemed like hours, a wistful smile upon his face. He gently reached out and touched the picture of Sakura. _"_One day. Maybe one day we can be more than just friends." He chuckled sadly and spoke to himself, "Who am I kidding? She's in love with Sasuke."

Shaking his head, he placed the picture gently beside the alarm clock, not noticing the soft gasp that came from outside of his bedroom door.

He rolled the scroll back up and placed it on top of the dresser, which he then added his ninja gear that was strapped on. He gently placed down his ninjato beside the dresser before heading towards the bathroom to brush his teeth so he could get some sleep.

* * *

Sakura spent quite a bit of time unpacking her stuff. Sure, she was tired, but it was a bad habit of hers that everything had to be _perfect._ It's something that sometimes irritated her, but she loved it. If everything was perfect, she didn't have to worry about searching around for anything, as she'd know where it was instinctively.

After separating her usual red dresses from her fancy dresses, she went back to the scroll and unpacked everything else she had. She had a few books, which she stacked neatly on top of the desk. It didn't take long for her to finish unpacking, so she quickly got ready for bed.

She unstrapped her ninja gear and set it on top of the nearby dresser, and changed her clothes from her red dress to her usual red and pink pajamas which had a picture of a cherry blossom tree on it. She didn't care for the design too much, as she got enough of the cherry blossom stuff from everyone she knew because of her name. She just liked this pair of pajamas because it was comfortable.

Once finished with that, she went to the bathroom to do everything she needed in order to prepare for a good night's rest. When she was finished there, she silently made her way back to the bedroom, but stopped short next to Naruto's door, as she could vaguely see him sitting up and staring at something from the crack in his door.

She was so caught up in trying to figure out what he was staring at that she almost missed his words. "One day. Maybe one day we can be more than just friends." When she heard that she gasped, and her heart fluttered strongly in her chest. She just wanted to go in there and tell him that today was a good day, but she heard his next words, which put a stop to any action she might have done.

_'I even fooled him into thinking I love Sasuke. That's not good. What should I do?'_ Was her first thoughts, but she noticed that Naruto was getting up from his bed so she ended them early, and made her way sneakily back into her own bedroom.

When she got back into her bed, she laid down and made herself comfortable, and stared up at the ceiling, deep in thought about what she just heard. Was there a chance after all? Should she use this mission to get together with him? She wasn't sure, but she knew she didn't want things to stay how they were. It would be torture.

As she was drifting off to sleep, she heard the door to her room creak open and became alert again. Turning towards the intruder, she saw some platinum blond hair. She yawned and spoke sleepily, "What do you want, piglet?"

Ino kneeled down beside her bed and thought for a second, "I couldn't sleep. Not yet, I need to know something before I can."

Sakura blinked, "And what's that?"

"What was with that picture of you and Naruto?"

Sakura sighed sleepily. She knew this was going to come eventually. "Can't this wait till tomorrow?"

The blond shook her head, "No, I keep thinking about it and I can't get any sleep because of it. Just tell me so I can leave."

"Fine fine, what do you want to know about it?"

"When was it taken? Why was Naruto, of all people, hugging you like that? You two looked like a couple in that picture."

"Well...that picture was taken on my last birthday a few months ago. Naruto came over for some dinner and ended up staying late into the night talking with me. Before he left Mom took a picture of us in my room. And as for why?"

Sakura turned to face Ino, "Because he's my best friend."

Ino looked shocked. Something just didn't add up, "Your best friend? How so? All you do is beat him up and make fun of him all the time!"

Sakura shook her head, "That's just what you see when we're at the academy."

"What do you mean?" questioned Ino, not understanding, nor believing. She thought she knew all there was to know about the pinkette.

"I mean just that. We're different at the academy. There, we act like we barely know each other. When we aren't at the academy, though, he's my best friend. The best one I could ever ask for."

The platinum blond sighed and mocked a hurtful tone in her voice, "I thought I was your best friend?"

Sakura giggled lightly, "You're my second best. You're the only other friend that I really have, ya know?"

Ino chuckled, "You aren't the easiest person to get along with." She then looked the roseate girl in the eyes, "So why aren't you two friends in the academy?"

"You remember when I first met you?"

Ino pondered for a second, "Yeah, you were pretty bad back then. You were always getting made fun of."

Before Ino could continue in her story, Sakura sighed, "That's why, Ino. I didn't want to be made fun of anymore. You know how Naruto is treated by everyone. I was just...afraid of going back to how I used to be." Sakura laughed sadly before looking back at Ino, "Stupid reason, huh?"

Ino looked at her and studied her, "Yeah, it kinda is. He doesn't mind hiding like that?"

Sakura frowned slightly, "He doesn't like it, but he understands, I think. It doesn't matter anymore, though. When we go back, we aren't going to hide it. We're best friends, and we're gonna show that to the world."

Ino sat down beside the bed to get comfortable, "Okay, now you've got me even more curious. How did your friendship start? Was it before you knew me?"

The pinkette looked up at the ceiling and sighed. She just wanted to get some sleep, but she knew Ino wasn't going to back out anytime soon, either.

"Yeah, I've known him since long before I even met you."

Ino looked curious, "But I met you when you were 7, when and how did you meet him?"

Sakura pondered it for a moment, "I was 6 back then I think."

_Flashback_

_The academy had only started a few months ago. Sakura had been one of the new generation that began their schooling there this year._

_The academy was not a fun place for her, though. Everyday after class would end, she would be stopped outside of the school in the playground and be made fun of by the older boys and girls of the academy. They would always make fun of her forehead, sometimes even getting a little rough and shoving her around and kicking dirt at her._

_She had only wanted to walk home in peace, but it was not meant to be. It happened daily without fail, but she could never get used to it. Sakura wasn't a very confident person, so the insults they were yelling at her made her want to cry. It didn't help when they would start shoving her around, so her tears just began to flow freely._

_Today was a different day, however, as the group of bullies was interrupted roughly by a large rock being thrown at the tallest one._

"_Hey! Don't be mean to her like that! What did she ever do to you!"_

_The group of bullies paused in their harassment of Sakura and turned to the blond haired boy who interfered, "And what are you gonna do about it, ya twerp?"_

"_I'll show you what!" And with that Naruto charged into the group and started swinging his fists wildly at the older boys. They spent most of their time easily dodging his blows, as Naruto was just only beginning to learn the art of fighting. There was nothing he could do to them, but he didn't stop trying._

_It was only a few minutes before the older group got bored and began to get violent towards Naruto, yelling things at him trying to discourage him from ever sticking up for the girl again. When they were done pounding on Naruto, they just broke up and left the scene, leaving behind a beat up boy, and a still crying girl. Although she now had a new reason to cry, which was how hurt the boy was._

_She ran over to him, "Why did you do that? They only were gonna call me names, not beat me up!"_

_Naruto slowly made his way to his knees, ignoring the pain, "Because, it's not nice to make fun of people like that! And I couldn't let someone like you get bullied!"_

_Sakura dried her tears to clear her vision and looked at him again, "So what's your name?"_

"_Uzumaki Naruto! What about you?"_

"_I'm Haruno Sakura. Nice to meet you, Naruto!"_

_By this time, Naruto was standing back up. Rubbing the back of his head, he questioned her, "So why do they make fun of you like that?"_

_Sakura looked about to cry again, so Naruto tried to retract the question, "Sorry! You don't have to tell me if you don't want to!"_

_The pinkette shook her head and choked back her sob, "I-It's okay. They make fun of me because I have a big forehead. It's ugly!"_

_Naruto walked closer and studied her for a moment, "It doesn't look big to me. It looks pretty on you!" He leaned forward and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead, which made her blush._

"_I don't see why they would make fun of you for that. It just makes you look prettier I think!"_

"_T-thank you. Nobodies ever said anything like that to me before."_

"_They should have!" Naruto spoke, "So why were you out here, anyways?"_

_Sakura looked at him, for the first time noticing how beautiful his blue eyes were. She blushed slightly again before replying, "I just got out of class, so I was trying to go home." She then frowned and continued, "They do this every day. They always wait for me and then make fun of me because of my forehead."_

_Naruto thought for a moment, "Not anymore they won't! I'll come here everyday and stop them, I promise!"_

_Sakura smiled at him, "Thank you! Well, I have to go home now, I'll see you tomorrow, Naruto."_

_Just as she was about to turn around and walk off, Naruto came up beside her, "I'll walk you home, Sakura-chan!" He then shrugged, "I don't have anything else to do anyways."_

_Sakura nodded. She felt safe with him, especially since he said he was going to stop those bullies. "Okay, I'd like that."_

_Leading him towards her house, the two made smalltalk, which consisted of lots of laughter. She quickly found that Naruto could be funny._

_End flashback_

Sakura sighed lovingly at the memory. She cherished it, "He kept that promise and walked me home every day after that until I met you. When I met you things got better and the bullies stopped completely." The roseate girl then frowned, "I kind of pushed him away after I met you. I got so caught up in being popular that I didn't want to chance going back to the way things were."

Ino remembered the days when she first met Sakura. The pink haired girl wasn't very confident, and very shy. Ino thought she was her first friend, but now she knew that she was wrong. "So you two are close, huh?"

Sakura turned back and faced the ceiling again as she nodded. She then mumbled something inaudibly, but Ino was still able to hear, since she was so close to the girl, "Not as close as I'd like to be."

That took Ino by surprise, "What the hell do you mean by that? You two are best friends, how much closer can-" A thought stopped Ino, and her shock was deepened, "No, you're kidding right? You like Naruto?"

Sakura blushed deeper and pulled her sheet up to her eyes to try and hide from embarrassment, but Ino was persistent. "Come on! Don't try and hide it!" She leaned over the bed and poked Sakura accusingly, "You like him, don't you?!"

Sakura's hidden blush deepened, but she reluctantly nodded while responding, "Yeah, I do. Do you have a problem with it, piggy?"

Ino sighed, "No, I don't. I don't care who you like, forehead. What about Sasuke-kun?"

Sakura lowered the sheet before responding, "What about him? Sure he looks kind of handsome, but that's all. I really can't even stand Sasuke. His attitude just pisses me off."

Ino's mouth gaped at her response, before anger set in, "How dare you say anything bad about Sasuke-kun!"

Sakura waved her hands, "Whatever, piglet. Go have fun with Sasuke." Sakura yawned very loudly, "Now can a girl get some sleep, or do you plan on keeping me up all night?"

Ino just stuck her tongue out and shook her head, "Yeah, yeah. Didn't mean to keep you up this long. Go get your beauty sleep, you need it."

And before Sakura could throw a pillow at her target, Ino had already made her way out of the room and shut the door, leaving Sakura to herself.

Sakura just sighed wistfully while staring at the ceiling. As she was drifting to sleep, she whispered, "I love you, Naruto."

* * *

AN: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. It kept me for a while at a few scenes, but I finally gained the inspiration I needed to write it down.

Anyways, got some stuff I'd like to mention. I've gotten a few reviews and PMs asking me about my intent with Ino. I'll be honest, I have thought about placing her in their relationship, because I just love NaruSakuIno. I'm still toying with the idea, so vote in the poll on my profile if you want to voice your opinion on the idea.

I'll only place her in the relationship if I could make it work in a believable way. I've read way too many stories where she just goes up and says she loves him, and he responds with a kiss and says Sakura wouldn't mind sharing. No, won't happen in this story, sorry. Worst comes to worst, she just stays and becomes great friends with them. I chose Ino mainly for the fact that her antics and possible interaction with the team was just too awesome to pass up. (Plus, she's one of my favorite characters.)

I've also had a comment about my portrayal of Anko. I know, I've read those stories too where Anko is shown as a bloodthirsty crazy woman. Not here. I honestly don't believe she is that, anyways. Remember in the anime, where she is going over the rules of the second exam? She was serious as can be, making a few jokes here and there when she could, and trying to scare the students. Only crazy thing she did was the blood incident with Naruto.

As for the other reviews: Naruto is most definitely NOT going to get fox like traits. He is who he is. I'm trying my hardest to balance the team out to make it realistic, but not too overpowered, so don't worry too much about that. Sure, in comparison to canon they'd be gods, but that's because canon development is seriously lacking in my opinion.

So stop your worrying. Naruto is not going to get the ability to smell Orochimaru's farts all the way from southern Fire Country. Any and all strength he gains, he will gain in through the way he does best: Hard work.

Also, I've went through each chapter with a fine toothed comb, and hopefully edited out any grammar and spelling mistakes. As always, don't hesitate to tell me about them, as I always like to improve.

Thank you again to all who reviewed/favorited/added to alerts, I'm glad you are enjoying this story as much as I am enjoying writing it.

(Bleh at long AN's, but I had to do it. Kept getting too many similiar PM's, etc asking about the stuff I've covered. I'd rather clear out any confusion I can.)


	6. Testing

Disclaimer: Naruto is not owned by me. For starters, I can't draw, and a manga kinda requires that...

* * *

The morning was already starting out very badly for one Uzumaki Naruto.

The blond haired genin had a very terrible night's sleep. After he hit the pillow, he spent the majority of his night tossing and turning, his thoughts not allowing him rest. Many things troubled Naruto, and many more had him curious. He had heard the ruckus going on in the next room after he first went to bed, and heard them talking, but he could not make out what they were saying.

It made him wonder. What was so important that they would have to talk at 2 in the morning? Who were the ones talking? He knew his pink haired friend was involved, it was her room after all. He didn't know much else. Once the ruckus ended, he had went back to his thoughts. He so badly wanted to use this mission to try and get together with his crush, but there were a few things that were stopping him from even trying.

If she were to miraculously go out with him, wouldn't it be a bad thing? If they were dating, she would probably be in danger from the assassins too, wouldn't she? That problem was taken care of while they were out here, but they would need to return to the village eventually. The last thing he would want to do is put his best friend in any kind of danger.

Sakura's crush on Sasuke also weighed heavily on his mind. To him, there was no doubting that Sakura would choose Sasuke over him. Who wouldn't? Sasuke was the last of the noble and elite Uchiha clan. He, on the other hand, came from the no name Uzumaki clan. Sasuke also had the funds behind him in order to take care of a girlfriend. Naruto, for the most part, did not. So there was no doubt in his mind that Sakura would be better off with the raven haired academy student.

Even if the Sandaime took care of the assassin issue, and Sakura moved on from the Uchiha, would she even dare look towards him for a relationship? Naruto knew very well that he had a stigma attached to his name, but he couldn't help it. Would Sakura even risk her popularity to date someone such as him, the class clown, and dead last? Sure, she had mentioned that they would no longer hide their friendship when in the village, but friendship and a relationship were two different things.

Those were not the only thoughts that had crossed his mind the previous night. He was also curious about this mission. What would he train in? He figured since he had no idea how to use his sword, that he would need to learn kenjutsu, but would his sensei be able to teach him? How was he supposed to get better at controlling his chakra? What else did his sensei have in mind for his training? She seemed to have a bunch of ideas, but were they any good? They must have been, if his sensei's excited look when she mentioned them said anything.

Naruto eventually was able to slip into a blissful unconsciousness at around 5 am in the morning. It was extremely lucky for him that his sensei had planned on letting them sleep in. Things just weren't meant to be, however.

He was woken up quite rudely, after only experiencing a measly 4 hours of sleep. It seemed his two female teammates were at each others throats again, if their loud bickering was of any indication. He could only make out select parts of their conversation, but after piecing them together in his head, he came to the conclusion they were arguing about a boy. He could only assume it was Sasuke. Just as he had dreaded, it seemed that he would have to deal with fangirling here, as well.

When the noise finally subsided, nearly 45 minutes later, he decided he'd try to get some more sleep. 4 hours just wasn't enough, especially since his sensei said she was going to test them today. He quickly found out, though, that he was far too awake to be able to get anymore rest.

Groaning, he sluggishly got out of bed and made his way over to the closet to gather some clothes. He could only hope a shower would take him out of this state, as training like this would be hell. After gathering his usual orange jumpsuit and a fresh pair of boxers, Naruto left his room and made his way over to the steam filled bathroom that smelt of lavender and strawberries.

Turning the knobs to heat the water, he looked over in the mirror as he waited and, as he expected, he looked like crap. There was dark rings around his eyes, an obvious sign of his lack of sleep. As he entered the shower, he quickly found another reason to hate this morning. It would seem that Naruto had been the last one to shower this day, as there was absolutely no hot water left. There had been one benefit to this, however. It succeeded in fully waking him.

After showering and getting dressed, Naruto made his way downstairs to the kitchen to get something to eat. Maybe a nice meal could improve his deteriorating mood, cause as of right now, he hated life. His sensei was already there, it seemed. "Holy hell, you look like shit. What happened to you?"

Naruto made a beeline straight for the refrigerator in hopes of gaining a tall glass of ice cold milk. He spoke up irritably, "No sleep. Loud girls. Cold shower. Need I say more?"

Anko snorted and went back to her task of making breakfast, "No need to get all snotty about it. Why couldn't you sleep?"

He shook his head in response, "Don't wanna talk 'bout it."

Anko nodded. She knew there were some things that were better kept private. "You're gonna hate me today, then. I ain't gonna go easy on ya just because you didn't sleep. That was your fault, not mine."

Naruto just ignored her comment and drank his glass of milk. He never expected her to go easy on him. He noticed the smells lingering in the kitchen for the first time and looked over to the bacon and eggs she was cooking. "Smells good."

"Of course it smells good." Anko exclaimed proudly while turning the bacon, "I'm the one cooking it, and I'm a damn good cook if I do say so myself."

Naruto grinned slightly, "I'll be the judge of that." He then frowned, "Too bad some of it's gonna go to waste. If I know Sakura, she won't eat much of it."

"And why the hell not?"

"Diet."

Anko shook her head, "Oh really? Girls these days..."

While the purple haired kunoichi continued to work on breakfast, Naruto just leaned back onto the counter and relaxed. It was a short few minutes later that Anko yelled, her hands cupped over her mouth. "Alright kiddies! Stop dolling yourselves up and get your asses down here! It's breakfast time!"

Naruto helped her bring the plates to the table and listened as the girls came downstairs. He could hear them across the house. Would they ever stop their bickering? Knowing those two, it wasn't likely.

As everyone sat down to eat, Anko snickered inwardly at the two kunoichi's faces when they spotted what was on their plate. After hearing about their diets, Anko had made sure to serve them a large helping.

Ino was the first to speak her mind, "I-I can't eat all of this! It'll destroy my diet!"

Sakura readily agreed, which made their purple haired sensei snort in disgust, "To hell with your diet. Eat."

"But...but I don't want to get fat! I gotta keep my figure!" Cried Sakura, attempting to plead with her sensei, hoping she'd understand. Their sensei was a girl too, after all.

While Naruto was digging into his breakfast, Anko just paused in her eating and set the two young kunoichi with a glare, "You want to keep your figure, huh? Then get some damn exercise. You're kunoichi, act like it."

The girls reluctantly nodded and began to eat their breakfast slowly, obviously unhappy. Anko just watched while eating her own and eventually scoffed, "You two need to stop worrying so damn much about how you look. It's gonna get ya killed one day."

"How so?" Questioned the platinum blond, actually curious. How would looking good get you killed?

"Your diets, for example. It's way too unhealthy. You need to eat to gain energy. If you starve yourself, you won't have the energy to complete your mission. Not only that, but you'd be too weak to fight, which could get you, or even your teammates killed."

Sakura had already known this. While Ino digested the new information, Anko continued, her gaze softened. "I know how it is to want to look good, and theres nothin' stopping ya from doing it. But you're going about it all wrong. Instead of dieting, exercise. That way not only do you keep your figure, you also gain the strength you need as a shinobi. You two need to focus more on training and becoming better with your career, than worrying about how good you look."

The girls nodded their understanding and ate their breakfasts, silently hoping their training for the day will burn all of the extra calories that they were gaining.

Once breakfast was finished and Ino had done the dishes, Anko directed them, "Alright, you have 5 minutes to meet me out back. Get going!"

And with that, each genin raced off to their rooms to gather their equipment.

* * *

Exactly 5 minutes later all three could be seen gathered in the backyard, standing there waiting for their sensei's orders. They took a look around, as this was their first time seeing it, and spotted a large area enclosed by a tall wooden fence. Sakura pointed to it and questioned, "Anko-sensei? Do you know what's in there?"

Anko turned her head over to the enclosed area to look at it then shrugged, "No idea. Didn't bother checkin' last night. Why? Wanna go take a look?"

All three genin nodded, so she walked off in the direction of the fenced in area, "Eh, I guess we can spare a minute to take a peek."

When they opened the gate door and saw what it contained, everyone smiled in joy.

Enclosed in the gated area was a family sized onsen, capable of holding around 8 people, if they were to guess. Everyone present could only think about how nice it would be to relax there after a long day's training. It would be heaven.

Coming out of her thoughts, Ino smirked mischievously and inched closer to her pink haired rival-gone-friend. When she got close enough, she leaned in and whispered so only Sakura could hear, "Hey forehead, I betcha can't wait to share with blondie over there."

Sakura choked in embarrassment and spun around towards her snickering friend and yelled angrily, "Ino-pig!"

The other two's eyebrows rose up in curiosity when Ino's snickering turned into full blown laughter. Ino was laughing because she got the what she wanted; A violent reaction and a blush on her teammate's cheeks that would make her believe she'd die of blood loss. Her laughter continued for a few moments before her pink haired teammate punched her and stormed a small distance away in anger.

Naruto leaned towards his sensei, who was standing right beside him. "Am I ever going to understand them?"

Anko laughed slightly and shook her head, "Doubt it, kid. Those two are something special."

She then spoke up so all could hear, "Alright brats, that's enough fun for now. We need to get started." Motioning for them to follow, she lead them away from the onsen and towards an area that was clear. "Alright, first we'll start with a warm up. I want each of you to do 150 push-ups and 150 sit-ups. Now get to it!"

Everyone nodded. This was basic academy exercises, so they were used to doing them. Anko watched them, observing every detail. She also felt the need to make sure that they were doing the exercise properly, because she didn't quite trust the teachings at the academy.

When the group of genin were nearing the end of their push-ups, she saw a slight tremble from Ino's arms and frowned. She knew from the records that Ino's strength was lacking, but was it really this bad? She had her work cut out for her, that's for sure.

They continued on to do their sit-ups, this time there seemed to have been no struggle. She was glad, because if there had been any struggling to complete basic sit-ups, she would have had to dedicate a large amount of time to basic training they should have mastered in the academy.

As the genin finished, she spoke up, "Not bad, not bad. We're gonna be doing those every morning from now on, so get used to it. Eventually I'll be increasing how many you do to build up your strength. Can't have any weaklings on this team."

She looked around the clearing for a brief moment before turning back to her students, "Your next task is simple. Run around the edge of this clearing until I tell you to stop." She waited impatiently as they just sat there, "What the hell are you waiting for? Get going!"

The genin took off together, making their way to the edge of the clearing so they could follow the path set for them. Anko sat down beside the nearby tree and pulled out her notebook and wrote down observations about their previous exercise. She had a slight tendency to forget things, so writing it down always helped.

When she finished, she watched as the genin continued their run, chatting happily with each other. She was glad that the team got along, for the most part at least. At first she thought it was going to be hell living under the same roof as three preteens, but she realized as the days progressed that it wasn't too bad. The two girls did have to work on their volume control, though.

They continued like this for nearly two hours, with Anko just laying back and relaxing. Most people would think she'd rather be in noisy situations, when the truth was that she enjoyed peace and quiet. She didn't get it too often, but when she did, she made the most of it. Eventually, though, she would get bored and have to do something.

Like now. She was beginning to get very bored, so she decided to get some exercise with her students, so she met up with them as they were finishing another lap and joined them in their run. Now that she was closer, she was able to see more details about her students.

All three were sweating profusely, which she didn't quite expect. It was in her opinion that Naruto should have been able to do this without breaking much of a sweat, but she eventually pinned the blame on the heavy jumpsuit jacket he was wearing. Was he insane wearing that year round?

She paid even more attention to their breathing, and noticed that the girls were breathing quite shallow and frowned. So they were going to need to focus on the physical aspect for a little while. Naruto seemed winded, but not nearly as much as the girls, so she decided that if Naruto's chakra control is as bad as she assumed, she would have him focus more on that while the girls focus on the physical portion of their training.

After a few laps of running in silence, she spoke, "I got an idea. I want to test your mind a bit, as well as test your body, so we're gonna play a little game. I'm going to give you a hypothetical situation that could happen during a mission, and I want you to tell me what the best course of action is that you think you should do. Ready?"

The genin nodded, not wanting to speak too much, so she thought for a few moments. "Alright, listen up, I'm only going to explain this once."

"Here's the deal. You are on a B-ranked mission, guarding something very valuable. It's not valuable in the sense of cash, it holds critical information that cannot fall into the enemies hands. As you were escorting it to Konoha, you encounter a small group of 3 missing nins. You can tell from your bingo books that they are 'A' and 'S' ranked difficulty. Their target is the object you are guarding. You know that if you were to run, they will follow. What do you do?"

Everyone thought as they kept their place, their brows furrowing in thought. It wasn't long before Ino needed more information. "How far are we from Konoha?"

"Around 15 minutes running at full speed."

Everyone nodded their acceptance after hearing the answer and continued to think. Naruto spoke his solution first. "Well, we have no other choice. Have one person guard the object and the rest fight them!"

Ino laughed at his answer which made him pout, "That's stupid, you baka. They could probably kill you. What you really need to do is just run towards Konoha as fast as you can. Just don't let them catch you. They wouldn't be stupid enough to enter the village to follow."

Sakura sighed at their answers and shook her head, "No, that won't work either. It's too risky to do that, Ino. You have to imagine that we are the team placed on the mission. Obviously, since it's a B-ranked mission, we would be somewhere around that rank. With the S-ranked, and maybe even the A-ranked missing nins there, they would probably catch us easily."

Sakura took a moment to catch her breath, "What we need to do is cause a distraction to make our escape, so we should play to our strengths. One of us would be in charge of holding the item. Another would pull out a few smoke bombs to cause confusion, while Naruto would create Kage Bunshins and Henge them into us. While we make a run for Konoha, his Kage Bunshins should jump out of the smoke and head the opposite way. The enemies would have no choice but to follow the bunshins, since if we do it right, they wouldn't have known we ran towards Konoha. By the time they catch the kage bunshins, we would have had enough of a head start."

Anko nodded and smiled slightly. She knew that Sakura had the smarts from her tests at the academy, but she didn't know that she also held tactical prowess. That could come in handy for this team, as it would need a leader for when she wasn't around.

"Glad someone in this team has brains. Sakura was right, Ino, and Naruto. Your ideas were way too risky. Your idea, Naruto, would probably have gotten you and your team killed. Never underestimate your opponents. Ino, your idea was a little bit better, but as Sakura said, they are stronger than you. You'd have to assume that since they are stronger, that they are also faster. Sakura's idea would have the highest chance of success."

Sakura beamed with pride upon hearing the compliment to her intellect, while the blonds sulked.

Anko just shook her head in amusement, "Don't worry you two, not everyone has the mind of a leader. Tactics and strategy can only be taught to a point, you need to also be born with that talent."

She looked over at her team and studied them again, noticing that they were wearing out even more. Before she ended this test, though, there is one more thing she wanted to learn from them, and she had the perfect idea. They might need some motivation.

She grinned mischievously, and went through a round of hand signs and slammed her hand on the ground. The students looked at her curiously while they continued their jogging, and watched as three snakes appeared from the smoke. Anko smiled sweetly and yelled out, "Speed test. Have fun!"

With that, the snakes went in search of their prey.

Anko snickered as she watched the faces of the genin. Some of the faces they went through in a short amount of time were priceless. First there was confusion, then realization. That lead into shock, which was followed by fear of being bitten. Her snicker turned into full blown laughter, as during his panic, Naruto tripped and stumbled, which cost him precious time to get away. The result was a very nasty snake bite to the rear and a very loud yelp, which encouraged the two kunoichi even more. Motivation at its finest.

She did notice that when they needed to, the group was definitely fast. Good for them, as Anko might have had to try and pull the snakes away from their targets. The snakes were always looking for a snack.

Dismissing the snakes, she yelled to her team, "Alright, test's over! Meet me in the dining room!" And with that, she disappeared in a puff of smoke.

* * *

In the dining room, the team was sitting down at the dinner table recovering from their two and a half hour run. They were completely worn out, but with the grin on their sensei's face, they knew training was far from over. Luckily their sensei was nice enough to give them a break and a nice tall glass of cold water.

Anko let them recover for a few minutes before she spoke, "You guys didn't do that bad, I guess. I'm a little disappointed, but we'll have to work on that. In all honesty, you should have been able to run for around twice the time if I hadn't had tested your speed."

At the mention of the speed test, all three genin glared at her, which made her chuckle, "Aww come on, it was fun!"

Naruto mumbled while absentmindedly rubbing his rear, "For you maybe. My ass still hurts."

Anko continued chuckling for a few moments before she turned serious again, "Anyways, it showed me that your speed isn't bad when you try."

"So what else are we going to do today?" Questioned the worn out Sakura.

Anko shrugged, "I got a couple more things planned that'll take up the rest of the day. For now, go make yourself something to eat for lunch and relax for a few. You'll need the extra energy."

Everyone nodded and headed to the kitchen planning on making themselves lunch. One only had to guess at what the golden blond had made for lunch, whereas the two kunoichi made themselves a light snack of anmitsu.

Lunch was a relatively quiet ordeal, with only a minor amount of talking. The only subject they felt like talking about was trying to guess what their sensei had planned for the rest of the day. She said it would require extra energy, so no doubt it was gonna be exhausting.

When Anko returned from her room, where she started a list of things she'd need to ask the Hokage for, she joined them in the living room, where the genin were resting. Ino and Sakura had each taken a couch and were laying down lazily, facing away from the cushions. Naruto was just leaning back onto the couch that held Sakura, and relaxed as her hands ran lazily through his messy hair. The three looked to be about to fall asleep, so she decided to start the rest of their training now.

"Alright you brats, enough resting, lets get back out there and finish training for the day." She noticed a lack of motivation as they slowly got up from their positions and decided a little motivation was in order, "The sooner you finish, the sooner you can get into the onsen."

It worked magically, for the girls at least. Naruto just wanted sleep. Anko lead them outside and towards a small grouping of trees not far from the house. Pointing to them, she explained the exercise, "Alright, I want you to climb these trees until you run out of chakra."

She watched as they nodded and made their way over to the trees. What came next she didn't expect, and it made her want to cry for the future of all the academy students. Was the academy lacking this badly when it came to training? Of course, she dismissed the fact that this group had one year's less education than their peers.

The genin trio was actually climbing the trees with their hands.

Anko slapped her forehead and sighed, "No, that's not what I meant. Get back over here."

When they did as told, they looked at her questioningly. What else could she have meant by "climb these trees?"

"Do they even teach you any chakra control exercises at the academy?" She questioned, and watched as Sakura nodded and explained, "Yeah, they have us stick leaves to our forehead and other parts of our body. If we get good at it, they make us spin the leaves while holding them, too."

Anko sighed. That was the most basic chakra control exercise that ever existed, "Well, we're gonna be doing one that's more challenging than that." Tossing a kunai to each of them, she continued, "They should have taught you this in the academy, but whatever. What you do is focus chakra into your feet, and walk up the tree like this."

As she was explaining, she walked up the tree using her chakra, and walked back down it. She looked at the semi-amazed students and shrugged, "Use the kunai to mark how far you make it up the tree. A little hint: If you focus too much chakra, you'll be blown off the tree. Focus too little, and you won't stick."

Each genin nodded, and formed the ram sign to help focus their chakra. Once they believed to have it focused correctly, they dashed off to the trees in hopes of completing this task fast. The faster they mastered this, the sooner they could go to the onsen or get some sleep!

Anko studied every detail of their climb. One of her biggest ideas was riding on the chakra control of the two girls. If their control was good enough, they would be able to do it and become amazing. If not, she'd have to work on their chakra control before she'd go with the idea. The idea she had was completely unorthodox, but if they could do it successfully, their training would skyrocket in its effectiveness.

If they failed, and couldn't do it, well, it would enough to say she'd be severely disappointed.

It would seem that her assumption on Naruto's chakra control was correct. It was horrible. No, scratch that. It was far worse than horrible. He barely made it 2 meters up the tree before plummeting back to the earth! She shook her head. It was going to take a lot of work to get his chakra control high enough to use many jutsus effectively.

Sakura's senseis were also correct when they made their reports. She made it over halfway up the tall tree on her first try. Sakura's control was amazing for her age, and if she were to compare it, Anko would say that her control was just under a unexperienced medic's. It would seem to her that it would most likely be best for Sakura and the team if she went with the medic nin role, but then came the problem of how to teach it.

Ino wasn't as good as Sakura, but she was close. A quick estimation of around 5 meters difference in the two. So that made Ino at above average for chakra control, which could work well with Ino's chosen path. She had stated that she liked jutsus, so that is what Anko planned on focusing her training in.

Anko grinned. It looks like her plan had a chance. It would just take a little work to get their chakra control to the needed level.

She watched patiently as the trio made steady progress up the tree. At the end of a half an hour, Sakura had successfully made it to the top of the tree and was beaming proudly. Ino was gaining on her, but not quite at the pace that Sakura improved at. Naruto, well, he was having some troubles.

Naruto was beginning to get discouraged, so he stopped for a moment and looked at his teammates and couldn't help but feel envious. His teammates were far better at this than he was. Sakura noticed his sullen look from the top of the tree and jumped town and walked towards him. "What's wrong, Naruto?"

Naruto shook his head, "I can't do it! I keep falling off the damn tree!"

Sakura already knew that, as she had been watching him occasionally. She looked over to the tree and studied the marks he was making and came to a conclusion, "You're using too much chakra. Try focusing less."

Naruto nodded and decided to listen to her. Trying again, this time with less chakra, he attempted to try to climb the tree again and made some progress for once. He still wasn't anywhere close to his teammates, but an improvement was an improvement. As he landed on the ground, he smiled and walked over to his pink haired teammate and gave her a gentle hug, "Thanks Sakura-chan! Don't know what I'd do without ya!"

Sakura tensed and blushed slightly at the contact and just nodded. He released her soon after and went back to work, trying harder than ever to better his control. Ino happened to have seen the hug from the perch of her tree and smirked. She knew that Naruto had a crush on Sakura, too. The way he acted in the academy was proof enough. Now the question was how did Sakura not notice it herself?

The team continued for around 10 more minutes before Anko called them over. "Good job. Sakura, you're definitely a natural at this. Ino, you aren't doing so bad either, you're almost to the top." Naruto looked at her expectantly, awaiting what she thought of him. Anko didn't say anything for a moment, instead looking at the marks of his tree. "You're learning, Naruto. Like I first thought, your control is horrible, so it's going to take a lot of work to fix it."

Two genin were beaming with pride, while one slightly sulked. Anko continued, "Anyways, we're gonna take a break from this for a few minutes. I want to see how you do at taijutsu, so we're going to have a little spar. We'll come back to this later."

She lead them over to a larger clearing away from trees and thought for a moment. She decided, since they were academy students, that sparring with one of her kage bunshins would be enough. Forming the needed hand seal, she summoned three bunshins into existence and looked over at her students.

"Each of you is going to spar one bunshin. No jutsus or weapons, just hand to hand combat. Got it?"

They all nodded and separated, one bunshin following each of them. Anko stood in the center of the group and watched as they sparred, trying to get a slight idea of their fighting styles.

She realized fairly quickly that Sakura was flexible. Very flexible, as she had dodged most of her clone's attacks. She also noticed, that Sakura barely moved to be offensive, she mainly stayed and focused on defense. When she did fight back, Sakura made every strike count, waiting for the right moments to counter attack. When the clone managed to land a blow on Sakura, Anko watched with joy as Sakura barely even flinched in pain from the forceful blow. Pain tolerance was always nifty to have, especially with her as a sensei.

Ino, on the other hand, spent most of her time attacking the clone, but never succeeding in hitting. Even though she couldn't seem to land a hit, Ino's movements were very graceful. Instead of moving out of the way of the strikes, she twisted and turned, almost as if dancing. Since she was not focused on defending like her teammate, Ino had taken quite a few hits herself. Her few hits she did land were slightly ineffective, mainly causing the clone to delay its next movements. If this style were to be sharped with practice, and Ino were to increase her speed and strength, it could be quite effective.

Their last teammate, on the other hand, was different. Anko couldn't find a way to describe his fighting style, or lack thereof. Where the two girls both fought with a modified basic academy taijutsu style, Naruto seemingly had no style. Instead, he moved erratically, and Anko found it unbelievably hard to try and predict what he was going to do next. If he were to ever get good at fighting like that, being unpredictable would give him a fair advantage over an enemy.

She just waited and watched as the students continued to fight her clones, which didn't take much time. They were clones, after all. It would only take one good hit to end the fight.

As the genin recovered from their fight, Anko nodded to them and wrote down her observations on her notebook. When she looked up, they recovered well, so she decided that their break should end. "Alright, it's," She began and then looked to the sky, squinting her eyes she looked at the position of the sun and looked back to her students, "around 3 in the afternoon. For the rest of the day I want you all to continue climbing trees with your chakra. Do it until you run out."

"Er...sensei? That might take a while for me..."

Anko nodded to him, "Ya think I actually thought you'd run out of chakra on some trees? Just keep doing it until both your teammates are done. I'll be in the house if ya need me. Got some letters to write to get you guys some stuff for trainin'."

Everyone nodded and went to do their own tasks.

* * *

Sakura walked into the enclosed onsen and made her way over to the water sluggishly. She was exhausted from her earlier training, especially the tree walking. She had spent another three hours walking up and down the tree to empty her reserves, and now she was feeling the effects.

The pink haired genin was also quite saddened about her earlier tree walking exercise. Sakura never realized before how little chakra she had in comparison to her teammates. When Sakura ran out of chakra, Ino still kept going, and continued to go for another hour and a half, eventually mastering it. It was then Sakura realized how far behind she was.

Slipping her body into the water, the heat immediately began relaxing her muscles, causing her to let out a low moan, which told to her half-asleep friend beside her that she was there.

Ino's eyes were drooping, barely open enough to see. She looked over to the new arrival and let out a weak smile at the moan she heard, "Feels good doesn't it?"

Sakura just nodded quietly, too preoccupied with the wonderful feeling to put any thought into words. They sat in silence for a few minutes, both leaning back with their eyes nearly shut. Ino finally got tired of the silence and broke it, "So what took you so long to get out here? I figured you'd get here first since I had to do the dishes again."

The pinkette's eyes opened a bit more to look at her friend, "N-no reason."

Ino's eyebrow quirked up in question, but she shrugged. "Mmm, whatever. I'm too tired to care."

"I hear ya. I don't think I've ever been so low on chakra before."

Ino nodded, agreeing with her friend, "I don't think I have either. How do you think whiskers is doin'? Think he went back to the trees? I don't think he wanted to leave until he mastered it. That would have been a while, though. He only made it, what, halfway up?"

"Yeah, good thing offering him ramen got him away from it, or he'd probably still be there." Sakura began, then shook her head, "He didn't go back there, though. He's passed out."

"Oh?" Ino questioned, an eyebrow raised, "And how do you know this?"

"I'm, uh...guessing?"

"Mmhmm, right. I'm not stupid, forehead." Ino started, then smirked, "I think you went to check on your little boyfriend. Maybe you even watched him sleep?"

"W-what makes you think that?" Sakura questioned, slightly embarrassed. She had been found out. Not like she'd ever admit it, especially not to Ino. "And he's not my boyfriend!"

Ino grinned victoriously. She knew, from the way Sakura looked and stuttered, that she had been right. "And why is that, anyways? What's stopping you from getting together with him? You're not scared of rejection, are you?"

"No, I'm not scared of that." Sakura began, remembering the night before, "I know he likes me. I heard him admit it last night in his room."

"Then why haven't you done anything?"

Sakura shook her head, as if trying to tell her friend to drop it. "Why do you care anyways?"

Ino shrugged, "Why wouldn't I? You're my friend."

Sakura looked at her friend skeptically and crossed her arms, "Right. Okay piggy, now tell me the _real_ reason you care so much."

"Well," Ino began with a slight grin, "The sooner you're together with whisker boy, the sooner I know for sure that Sasuke-kun is all mine."

"Thought so." Sakura stated, "It wouldn't be like you to do something without a good reason."

The duo sat in silence for a few minutes, each occupying their own thoughts. Sakura finally sighed, catching Ino's attention.

"I...I just don't know what to do."

Ino rolled her eyes, "Come on. You don't know what to do? Just tell him that you like him! It's not that hard, ya know. Kami knows you've told Sasuke-kun a million times."

"It's...different with Naruto."

Ino raised an eyebrow, "How so?"

"He wouldn't believe me if I just told him. He may trust me, but you gotta think about it. I've been acting like I was in love with Sasuke, for what, 4 years now?" Sakura sighed at that thought, "Naruto's got a hard head. He believes that I love Sasuke, and that I could never love someone else. He'd need some sort of proof."

"You know, forehead, even with all of those brains you have, you can be pretty stupid." Ino began, then giggled at her friends hurt expression, "If he needs proof, then give it to him. It's that simple."

"That's the problem. How do I prove it to him?"

Ino shrugged as she stood up to get out of the onsen and go to bed, "I don't know. You know him better than I do, you'll figure something out."

Sakura sighed as she got up to follow, "A lot of help you are..."

* * *

AN: Alright, I'm _still_ not really all that satisfied with that chapter, but I wanted to get Chapter 6 released to you. I'd really like to know what you think about this chapter, and any criticism you have for it. I _might_ end up rewriting this chapter if I feel the need to after I come back.

Anyways, I have a little announcement concerning this story. I will be taking a **one week break** from writing. Why am I doing that? Well, there are a few reasons.

One reason is that I screwed up in my writings. I changed something, and it threw off my plans big time. So one major thing I'm going to be doing during this week is replanning the entire training arc. For the most part, the plot and story won't be changed, but the contents inside of it have to be changed around a bit. If I don't go planning, I'll end up either: Making the story completely boring, or contradicting a bunch of things. Neither make for a good story.

The second reason I have is that I need to make my decision on the Ino part of the relationship. Right now I'm leaning towards NaruSakuIno, but we shall see. I'm going to be spending a great deal of time thinking about it. I want to make this decision before I get too far along into the story, as I want to build up the story to fit the decision. I'll take any comments/concerns/questions you have about it, either by review or PM. (There is also the poll found on my profile.)

Third reason is I feel my writing is a bit lacking, especially during training scenes. My main problem with this chapter is that is seemed a bit boring. I'm going to be reading a bunch of fanfiction when I have the time, and forming tips in my head to help better my writing. If you'd like to suggest one, please do, but I might not read it. If you've ever read my profile, you'll know that I'm very narrow minded in what fanfiction I read.

Anyways, even if I'm on break, if the mood strikes me and I have that chapter planned, I will write it and release it. So there may be an update from me during the week, but don't expect one.


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